Underdog (Pokémon)
by DachshundPiano
Summary: Jared Wilson is fifteen years old and waiting to begin his Pokémon journey, but he always gets held back. Constantly living under the shadow of his brother, Falkner, Jared feels left out and imperfect. He feels that the only way to change this is to become a Pokémon master himself. But what happens when his plan backfires?
1. Prologue

If there's one thing you can do to royally screw up your life around here, it's breaking into Professor Elm's _goddamn lab_ and threatening him with his own syringe. Tomorrow is the day that new Trainers will begin their Pokémon journeys. I've been waiting to start mine for a while- five years to be exact. But something always comes along and ruins it for me. One year, I had to stay home and help my sister through Trainer's School. Another time, I broke my leg. And once, some dip shit climbed through the window and stole the last Pokémon in stock! It didn't surprise me to learn that it was the narcissistic son of Giovanni for that last one. Regardless, I've always been screwed over some way or another. So why, when Professor Elm announced that three other kids wanted their chance this year, did I ruin their opportunity? Because I guess I'm just as self-centered as the other kid.

"J-Jared, put that down, please. You don't know what you're doing." Professor Elm stuttered out. _Like hell I don't_, I thought.

"Give me the Pokémon," I demanded, eyes narrowing. It was quite a scene. The Professor sprawled on the floor amidst scattered papers, a fifteen year old boy standing over him with a shot in his hand. To tell you the truth, I had no clue what was in the syringe, but it must be pretty freaking lethal or he wouldn't be cowering beneath me. Okay, maybe he would. I didn't have the nicest exterior (or interior) ever. I was a good six feet tall with short black hair- which was currently streaked with sweat from running all the way to Newbark Town. I came from my hometown, Violet City.

My name is Jared Wilson, and I'm robbing Johto's Pokémon Professor.

"Calm down, Jared. Think about your actions. Th-this could reflect badly on y-" The fool was cut off by the sound of a coffee mug shattering on the floor next to his face.

"You think I care about my brother's reputation?!" I shrieked at the top of my lungs. I had to clench my fist to stop it from shaking. I hated him. I hated Falkner so much! Everywhere I go, people ask me why I'm not as good as my precious big brother, Falkner. Just because he became the city's gym leader at a young age, succeeding my father, means that I have to be perfect too. He's the golden boy of the family, the one my parents croon over and give attention to. Well, not for long! Once I started my journey, he could kiss that position goodbye, because dad would boot him out of there faster than you could say 'Zephyr Badge'!

Professor Elm swallowed hard and dared to look up at me. "Jared, please don't do this." He said in almost a whisper. "Do you have any idea how the media will react?" The media. He's threatening me with the _media!_ Did I not just make it clear that I don't give a crap?

"Listen to me, Professor." I snarled, tightening my grip on the syringe. "You have two choices. Give me a Pokémon, or have this injected into to your veins!"

He backed up, flinching. We stared at each other- well, I glared at him- for a long time in silence, before Professor Elm sighed. "Fine, take your pick." He relented, and shot me a disapproving look before disappearing into a side room. "I hope you know that you're ruining a child's future."

I snorted. Bull-freaking-crap. I'd waited five years to start my journey; the snot-nosed brat who came latest tomorrow could suck it up for one.

I tried to act cool and collected, but honestly I was giddy with excitement. I completely changed from being dangerous to buzzing with joy. My first Pokémon, finally! At last I could get out of my house and away from those people! I was lucky I managed to hold onto the shot, in case the Professor tried anything tricky.

He returned from the room carrying three Pokéballs, and my breath hitched as he set them on a table. It was really happening, it had to be! In my dreams, this was always the part where Elm transformed into my brother and screamed at me for being useless. Since that wasn't happening, I assumed it was real. A tiny part of me kind of hoped it was a dream, because the fact that I was committing larceny put a damper on my mood. But I quickly shoved that thought away and stared hard at the red and white spheres.

After a long moment, Professor Elm's faced became annoyed. "Look, you're robbing me at…needle-point, I guess, at three in the morning. Could you hurry it up, please? I need some sleep so I can explain to the children tomorrow that one of them has to wait a year." He looked very upset, but I ignored his words and concentrated. When I was sure that the Pokéball on the far right seemed to be calling my name, I pointed to it.

"I want that one." I said, sure of my decision. Professor Elm raised an eyebrow.

"You don't want to know what's in it? I can tell you which-" He began, but once again I cut him off, though this time no dishes were broken.

"No!" I exclaimed. "Don't ruin it. The Pokémon chose _me_." I replied earnestly. Elm only rolled his eyes.

"Are you positive? Maybe the Pokémon is trying to tell you that you're going to land yourself behind bars." He retorted, sounding exhausted and fed up.

I scowled. "It's a Pokémon, not Officer Jenny." I snapped, but I immediately relaxed when my eyes rested on the Pokéball again. "Just give it to me!"

With resigned look, he handed me the mystery Pokémon and a Trainer's Card. I furrowed my brow and gave him a look. "What about a Pokégear?" I asked.

The Professor groaned. "Now you're stealing equipment, too!" He picked up the item in question and chucked it at my head, but I easily caught it with my free hand.

"Thanks, Professor, for all your help." I sneered, earning myself a glare.

"Get out of my lab, and do _not_ return to Newbark Town…ever!" Elm shouted, looking ready to burst with anger. I gave a quirky smile.

"No problem," I responded haughtily. Then I dashed out of the building and into the streets.

I whipped around, taking a right and barreling towards the dark woods. Within seconds, I could hear police sirens cutting through the still night air. I swore under my breath and tore through the undergrowth, exploding into the forest. With every step, I seemed to grow weaker, and the sirens louder. _Are they chasing me in a car?_ I wondered. _They wouldn't use it in the woods, right? They'll know I'd never stay on the paths._

Whether or not they were in a car, I'd be in deep trouble unless I got the hell out of there, and fast. So I did. Veering deeper into the trees, I made sure that the road was out of sight before going in a straight line. Hopefully I could travel parallel to the man-made trails and reach Cherrygrove City before dawn. But I seriously doubted that scenario if I was going through the woods.

Just when I thought I'd pass out from running, the sirens faded into the distance. They were giving up chase. I slowed to a stop and stumbled, falling over. I wiped the sweat off my forehead and crawled to a tree, which I propped myself up against. The cool night air rushed around me, wind stirring the branches. I closed my eyes and let the breeze wash over me. It felt nice. I swung my bag off my shoulders and stuffed the Pokégear and Trainer Card in it, but clutched the Pokéball for dear life.

When my breathing had slowed to a reasonable pace, I leaned forward from the tree and studied the object in my hands, before pressing the button in the middle. The ball enlarged and glowed white for a moment, before becoming eerily still. I knew it'd be best to wait until morning, but I couldn't. I tossed the Pokéball into the air and whispered, "I choose you."

A red light beamed from it, seeming much brighter in the dark of the forest. I squinted and shielded my eyes as best I could without obscuring my view, and waited for the Pokémon to appear. _Will it be a Cyndaquill, Chikorita, or Totodile?_ I wondered. My stomach clenched in anticipation as the light faded, to be replaced by…wait, what? No. No. Frick, _no_!

"Igglybuff!" The pink puffball in front of me squealed. I groaned. _Damn you, Elm._ I had to hand it to him for putting one over on me like that. Later I'd be angry, but right now I was too depressed to care.

The Igglybuff turned to me and tilted it's head- basically, titled it's whole body. Then it beamed happily and bounced in place. "Igglybuff!" It shrieked once more. My eyes dilated as I saw my entire life crumbling before me. I grabbed my bag and practically ripped it open, digging out my Pokégear. Using the device, I opened the built in Pokédex and searched 'igglybuff'.

Taking a deep breath while the Dex calculated results, I glanced over at the Igglybuff. It smiled at me and made a cooing noise before wandering towards me. I gave it a wary look and held out a hand. "Here, Igglybuff, here little guy…" I know that Pokémon have an uncanny way of understanding humans, but this really crossed the line. The Igglybuff's face contorted in fury and it let out a shriek of rage.

"_Iggly-Igglybuff_!" My eyes widened as the tiny creature's cry broke the tranquility of the forest. It stomped towards me.

"Okay!" I exclaimed. "Here, little _girl_. I get it. You're a female! Not a boy!" My eye twitched as she kept walking slowly, menacingly towards me. "Oh, Arceus, this thing is going to kill me." I whimpered. Suddenly, the Pokégear beeped and I looked at it. _Igglybuff_, it read. _The Balloon Pokémon. Type: Normal. Moves: Charm, Defense Curl, Pound…_

I frowned. Clearly, this was a useless Pokémon. And then I caught the name of another move on the list. _Sing_. "Oh, crap!" I backed up, pressing myself against the tree, but that didn't stop the tiny pink devil. It seemed to grin evilly at me as it approached, and stared up at me.

Then, it opened it's mouth and began to sing. The last thing I registered before passing out was the sound of my new Pokémon giggling. "Iggly."


	2. Chapter One

Chapter One

I woke up to the sound of a Pidgeot chirping obnoxiously. I sat up and blinked the sleep from my eyes. It was late morning, and the sun was already beating down hard. It would be a sweltering day. _Am I in the forest? Why would I- wait a minute._

Slowly, I turned my head to the side and flinched when I saw it. The Igglybuff was curled up in a ball right at my feet. Right. At. My. Feet. I swallowed hard and inched away from it, before picking up my bag. I had to figure out my next course of action. The best idea, of course, would be to make a run for it before my Pokémon woke up. But…it was my responsibility. I couldn't just leave it there. It- well, she- had never been in the wild before, if Elm raised it. Since it was in it's first evolution form, it was probably about level ten, max. I sighed and reached into my bag, pulling out the Pokégear.

Seventeen missed calls already. Is that even possible? Ugh, the Professor must have given my parents the number. I quickly blocked the caller and pressed the radio button. Tuning it, I listened to the newscast.

"_Jared Wilson of Violet City, age fifteen, broke into the NewbarkTown lab late last night. He confronted Johto's Pokémon Professor, Elm, and threatened him with an unidentified object. He then dispersed with a Pokémon- an Igglybuff, as Professor Elm elaborated. Jared is described as a tall boy with black hair and green eyes, and is thought to be hiding in the woods around Cherrygr-_"

I snapped the device shut. Well, so much for wandering into Cherrygrove. How far would I have to travel before they gave up chase? Azalea Town? This could be a struggle. How would I buy food for myself, and the Igglybuff?

As if on cue, my stomach rumbled and I sighed. The Igglybuff rolled over in it's sleep and mumbled something. I felt a smile tug on the corners of my lip, but I quickly flattened my face into a frown. Nuh-uh. No cutesy cuddly stuff. I'm not a nine year old girl.

"Iggly…" The Pokémon slowly opened it's eyes and I drew in a deep breath. It blinked and opened it's mouth to yawn, and I plugged my ears. _Don't sing don't sing don't sing…_

It paused, and I tentatively removed my hands from the side of my head. For a moment, it just stood there, waking up. And then it started bawling- literally, _bawling_. "No!" I cried. "Stop, please, just stop!" The sound quickly became unbearable, a screeching wail echoing off every tree in the forest. I moaned in horror and once again attempted to plug my ears, but to no avail. The Igglybuff thrashed around, tears pooling in it's overly large eyes. Still shrieking like a banshee, it ran up to me and began beating on me with it's tiny hands.

"Ow, stop, ow, hey that hurts- agh!" I crumpled onto the ground while it cried and smacked my back repeatedly. I shielded my face with my hands and waited for death to come. _If there's a deity out there listening, I am so sorry I stole a Pokémon. Please have mercy. I mean I'm _really_ sorry- I got stuck with this little shit, and now it's going to kill me!_

Smack, smack, smack. "Igglybuff!" Smack, slap, backhand. "Iggly!" Maybe I misjudged it's strength, because this 'pink puffball' was going to leave numerous bruises. "Iggggy!" It sobbed, jumping up and down on my back.

"Gah! Stop…jumping…it hurts!" That just made it jump harder, driving the breath from my body. I groaned and lay still until it stopped jumping. _Did it calm down?_ I wonder. _Has it finally-_

"Oh my Arceus!" I screamed in pain. "You…you bit me!" I shook my arm, trying to get the Igglybuff to release it's hold. Unfortunately, it seemed intent on chewing a hole through my bone.

"Iffny…" Her cries were muffled by my shirt (and skin). "Iffnypuff!" I was beginning to think that she was intentionally biting harder each time I moved. In fact, this theory was proved when, after I tried to push her away, she used pound on me.

"Ugh…" I doubled over in pain and clutched my stomach, the target of her fury. I looked up at my Pokémon, irrational fear glazing my eyes. "What…did I do to you? And how are you so strong?" I grunted. The Igglybuff released her teeth and backed up. Then she charged at me and kicked my face. Okay, so maybe the fear wasn't so 'irrational' after all.

I've done some questionable things in my life, but stealing a Pokémon had to be at the top of my list. It was also the most embarrassing thing I'd ever done, because now I was getting beaten up by an Igglybuff. A one foot tall pink puffball. How much did it weigh? An ounce? It was pretty pathetic. On my way to Newbark Town last night, I encountered a group of Houndour and still managed to scare them away by simply waving my arms and shouting. But this tiny, 'adorable' Igglybuff didn't seem afraid of me at all.

The Igglybuff stopped kicking my face and climbed onto my head. Grabbing a clump of my hair, she tugged on it until I screamed. "Get off me, demon! Go away; I don't want to deal with you either!" I grabbed my bag and, taking a desperate measure, swung it at the Pokémon on my head.

Of course, because it was just my luck, the Igglybuff hopped out of the way and my bag came crashing into my skull. I groaned in pain and brought a hand to my head, but realized that my bag had opened and it's contents were scattered on the ground. "Oh, crap." I mumbled. "I hope my Pokégear didn't break…" I crawled over and started to refill the bag, but the Igglybuff wandered towards the wreckage. I froze and stole at glance at her, but she ignored me. Waddling over to where most of the stuff had fallen, she picked up a sandwich bag and ripped it open. I stared, perplexed, as she reached in and pulled out- you have got to be kidding me.

The Igglybuff took a handful of cookies and shoved them into her mouth. Then she grinned at me with her mouth full. "Igglybuff!" After finishing off her breakfast, she bounced over to me and hopped onto my head, giggling happily. "Iggy!"

"Yeah…right." I muttered, shaking my head. "Iggy." Something snapped in my brain and my mouth fell open. "You were hungry. You beat me up…because you wanted _food_!"

As soon as I glanced up at her beaming face, I knew it was true. Her attitude had completely turned around now that she was full. I sighed and wiped the blood off my arm and nose. "Great, I have a bipolar Igglybuff to deal with. Just wonderful." My only answer was a slap to the forehead.

An hour later, my Igglybuff was still sitting my head, and somehow managing to root through the bag, which was slung over my back. I walked through the woods, looking in every direction except up. By now, the sun was high in the sky and the Pokémon were out and about. I itched to catch one of the Furret that kept running by, but I had no Pokéballs to do so with. While the Igglybuff stared in amazement at my spare socks, I contemplated the rest of my life.

If I had a decent Pokémon, I could battle for money, buy hair dye or something, and shoot to the top of the ranks. But now that I was stuck with this vile creature, I wouldn't be able to win a battle for sport, much less risk betting on it! Which meant that I'd never be able to show my face in a Pokémart, so I could never buy more Pokéballs, and I would always be stuck living in the woods! And of course, I'm sure that would amuse the hell out of Falkner. I clenched my fist to keep from screaming in anger. As usual, I was going to be lagging behind my brother. I wondered if he'd heard the news about his sweet little sibling yet.

I stopped walking and stared at a patch of light in the distance- artificial light. The Igglybuff let out a whine of protest and nudged me, as if asking why the ride was coming to an end. But I ignored it, even when it started prodding me harder. After a minute or two, I could tell that the slapping was about to start, so I started moving slowly. _That must be Cherrygrove City_, I thought.

I chewed my lip nervously as I steadily drew closer to the light. What if there were police officers lying in wait for me, or something crazy like that? Or…what if a person recognized me right off the bat? What if- I really needed to stop thinking.

Suddenly, the Igglybuff tensed and gripped my head tightly. "Iggy…" It mumbled quietly. I frowned and glanced up, and she looked down at me. "Buff."

"What's wrong?" I asked nervously. I reached behind my back and pulled the bag of cookies out of my backpack. "Are you hungry?" I was not keen to repeat the morning's incident. But when I handed her a cookie, she batted it away. I cried out as it landed on the ground. "Great," I sighed. "More food wasted." But after a few moments, I shouted, "Five second rule!" and grabbed it. Then I brushed the dirt off the cookie and practically swallowed it whole. Not that it did much for my rumbling stomach, but I hadn't had food since dinnertime the night before.

Surprisingly, the Igglybuff didn't complain when I dove for the cookie. She just gripped onto my hair to stay on my head. After I finished of the cookie, I patted her on the head. "Good girl," I said. "As long as you don't hit me, we'll get along just fine." I lied. Yeah, no. That thing had scarred me for life- probably physically as well as mentally.

"Igglybuff…" She whimpered as I walked. I glanced up, wondering if the cookies were making her sick. But she didn't seem sick; she was terrified of something. I frowned and walked more slowly, hoping to calm her nerves. But when I came close enough to see the house that the light was emitting from, she shrieked in horror. "Iggy! Igglybuff! Iggggy!"

"What's wrong?" I asked in exasperation, not expecting an answer. "No one is going hurt you-" _What kind of village has a house with metal walls? And why are there no Pokémon around here?_

I stared at the house a few hundred yards away, my eyes boggling. "That is _not_ Cherrygrove City…" I mumbled. I'd never heard of there being a house in between Newbark and Cherrygrove, so I wondered how far I had to be from the paths. I began to worry that I was permanently lost, but I forced myself to keep moving. Maybe whoever lived there could point me in the right direction- and hopefully they didn't have a radio or television.

"_Igglybuff!_" My Pokémon screeched. "Ig, Ig, Iggy!" Now she was furious and scared, which is never a good combo on anyone. And if this was my Igglybuff…

"Whoa, whoa!" I said. "Calm down. I promise I'm not going to hurt you." I plucked her off my head and held her up to see. "Why don't you just have a cookie or something?" I felt my heart churn as she started to cry. I usually hated cute things, but something about her devious personality amused me. And it was kind of depressing to watch her cry, especially after what happened last time. I had to keep moving though, and I couldn't let a whiny Igglybuff stop me. But every time I took a step, she screamed louder.

In the end, I just covered her mouth and made my way towards the ominous building. I entered the clearing and made a move to walk up to the door, but at that moment a person walked out and I jumped back into the foliage in shock. I peeked back out and watched the person. She tossed a Pokéball into the air and caught it, laughing. Then she walked up to a bike and hopped on, speeding away in another direction. But as she turned the bike, I caught a glimpse of her shirt and gasped. A large red _R_ was labeled across the front of her shirt. Team Rocket.

I stumbled backwards, further away from the house, but not before I saw another group of people come from the woods and enter the house- which, come to think of it, was a bit big for a normal home. Because it wasn't a house- it was a base.

I clamped a hand over my mouth and whirled around. Grabbing the Igglybuff off my head and holding her against my chest, I took off running. As I crashed through the forest, I realized how stupid I'd been. Pokémon know when something's up, and despite the incurable devilishness of this Igglybuff, she had tried to warn me. But no, as usual, I didn't listen to anything anyone had to tell me.

After about ten minutes of charging through the woods, I slowed down and checked to make sure that no one was following me. When I was certain, I sat down on the ground and released my tight hold on the Igglybuff. She whined until I gave her another cookie, and then curled up in my lap. I sighed and lay down, using my backpack as a pillow. So much running in less than twenty four hours had made me exhausted. But I couldn't go to sleep right yet- I had to figure out this whole Team Rocket thing. Why were they here?

What could an organization like that want with a stretch of woods between the two smallest towns in Johto? There weren't many people, the Pokémon weren't rare, and the woods didn't exactly provide the best base. So why are they here? I wasn't even sure that I wanted an answer.


	3. Chapter Two

Chapter Two

"Yes. No. I didn't want to, but I've waited so long…yeah, it was wrong, but- hey, watch it! I got held back once because of you!" I growled into my Pokégear. When I'd discovered the Team Rocket base, I decided that it would be best to call someone and let them know. But obviously I couldn't contact the police or they'd arrest me, and if I told my parents they'd probably hand me in as well. Falkner was a lost cause too, but that goes without saying. So I called the only person I could think of- my little sister, Samantha. Unfortunately, she had heard about my little incident, and I with all her complaining I hadn't even been able to tell her about Team Rocket yet.

"_Don't you pull that crap with me, Jared Skylar Wilson_," Sammy snorted from the other line. "_It was your decision to stay and help me study._"

"You would have failed Trainer's School without my help!" I protested, becoming cross. I heard her laugh on the other end.

"_So you say. But what about Falkner? He would've been a great teacher, if you'd given him a chance._" There was a shadow of doubt in her voice.

"Uh…no. You know that he was too busy being the fabulous new gym leader that year. In fact, he's always busy. Challengers, parties, ceremonies…blah, blah, blah. That kind of boring stuff." I replied.

I could imagine Sammy rolling her eyes. "_Please. He would've tried to make time for me, between all his 'boring' activities. I know you're just jealous that he was chosen instead of you._" She sighed. In case you haven't noticed, Sammy was the neutral in the family. Being the youngest at eleven years old, she hated watching Falkner and I get into fights, so she sided with both of us at once. Falkner was twenty-two, so there was a larger age gap between us than between Samantha and I. Therefore, I had a better bond with my sister, because we grew up together.

"Salt in the wounds, Sammy, salt in the wounds."

"_Oh, quit it. Salt in the wounds…ha! You haven't heard half my comebacks, Jar-Bear. If this is salt, then I've got battery acid ready to pour in your eyes._" Samantha snorted.

I winced at the disturbing analogy. "Um…no, the salt was plenty enough. But thanks anyway. Continuing on, as much as I enjoy chatting with my little sis, I did call you for a reason."

"_Well, wait to be blunt about it,_" She responded, but gave a resigned sigh. "_Okay then, shoot._" So I begin telling her the story.

"_You…you wh-what? You were…how? I c-can't believe that…how did you m-manage that?_" Samantha was noticeably choking back laughter, and she started coughing in her attempts to remain serious. "_How big is that Pokémon? L-like a foot tall…? Oh, forget it. Jared, you're so brave!_" Then she burst out laughing.

I rolled my eyes. "Can you be serious, please? I just told you that I'm like, five miles away from a jackpot of criminal activity!" I said in exasperation.

"_Yeah, but th-then you made the mistake of t-telling me that an Ig-Igglybuff managed to b-beat you up!_" Sammy giggled, hiccupping.

"Only because you wanted to know why I said I couldn't run very far." I protested, becoming agitated.

She cleared her throat and slowly calmed down. "_Yeah…but still. You could've made an excuse._"

I snorted. "I already stole a Pokémon; I don't want to feel guilty about lying to my own sister, too…"

"_Those two things aren't even on the same scale_," She retorted. "_Now, tell me what you plan to do about this whole Team Rocket thing._"

I opened, and then closed my mouth. To tell the truth, I _didn't_ know what I was going to do. I had not even the vaguest clue as to my next course of action. There was moment on silence, and then I sighed. "I…don't know." I admitted. "I can't call the police or they'll arrest me, and I have no friends. I'm on my own." The last sentence left my mouth without permission, and as I said it I knew it was true. Sammy was way too young to be involved in this kind of dangerous stuff, and I'd sooner jump off Mt. Silver than ask Falkner or my parents for help.

"_Well, aren't you well prepared to be flouncing through Johto!_" Samantha said sarcastically. Then she quieted down. "_But honestly, if you knew what you'd be getting into when you stole a Pokémon, then you probably should have thought about these kinds of situations._" She pointed out.

"Yeah, I know," I replied tiredly, running a hand through my black hair and leaning back against yet another tree. "It was a spur-of-the-moment kind of thing. But that's getting off topic- can you please tell dad or mom what's going on, without letting them know that I'm the one who discovered it?" I pleaded.

I heard Sammy hesitate on the other end. "_I'll try_," She said at last. "_But no promises. It may sound a bit suspicious unless I actually go to NewbarkTown, and I'm definitely not doing that. Sorry bro, but risking my life was not part of the deal with I was born with an older brother._"

"Older brothers, plural." I corrected her. "Although if you mean that you're disowning Falkner, by all means use the singular tense."

Sammy snorted. "_Sorry, but keep dreaming. You may not like him but I'd rather not be kicked out of the house._" I heard voices in the background and Samantha gasped. "_I've got to go, mom and dad are home. I'll try to tell them…bye! And good luck!_" There was a click, and she hung up. I sighed and tossed the Pokégear onto my backpack, which rested on the ground near the tree.

Glancing down at the Igglybuff in my lap, I began to think. She needed a name. If I was stuck with the little devil, I at least wanted something to call her. What if I got in a battle with another Trainer's Igglybuff? That could get confusing without nicknames. Or…people might think badly of me because I didn't give her a name.

Yeah, no. I was trying to make rational excuses, but truthfully I kind of liked the Igglybuff when she wasn't trying to kill me.

"Igglybuff…" She murmured in her sleep. I sighed and looked down at her. I was not going to even attempt to get up until she was awake. This thing was a ticking bomb, and I didn't want to set it off. So instead I began brainstorming names for my new companion.

After making a list of stupid girly pink names in my head, I mentally crumpled it up and tossed it into the garbage bin. Igglybuff, Jigglypuff, Wigglytuff. Those were the evolutions she would go through. What did all of them have in common? I squeezed my eyes shut and thought hard. Casting aside physical features, I realized that all of them had double _G_s in them. Gg…Gigi!

Still girly and stupid, but probably my best option. I sighed and made a mental note to start calling her that. But, in the meantime, I needed to decide where to go next.

Cherrygrove? Out of the question. Back to Newbark Town? Not the best idea. Violet City? If it's Falkner's day off when I get there. But I couldn't just travel in the woods until the media forgot about the 'hooligan Pokémon stealer.' I was already running low on food and I really, really didn't want to get beaten up again. So what could I do?

Suddenly, an idea came over me and I smirked. Perfect. Gigi yawned and began to wake up. _Good,_ I thought. _Right on time_.

"Ig, Ig, Iggy!" Gigi sang happily. Once again, she was riding on my head. I didn't want to try putting her in the Pokéball- I wasn't sure how she'd react. So she just sat and tugged on my hair while I walked. At some point between all the running, I'd gotten closer to the paths, and far to my left I could see the lights lining the trail, though it was hard to make them out because of the sunlight. Keeping an eye on them, I snuck through the woods towards Cherrygrove. I was getting close now- there were more lights and I could vaguely hear the din of people going on with their daily lives.

I glanced up at Gigi and smirked. "Do you like cookies? Those yummy things you ate this morning?" Gigi stopped singing and nodded fiercely, her eyes growing wide. I grinned even wider. "Well, I know a place where you can get cookies and other yummy things too. Do you want to go there?"

"Igglybuff!" She squealed.

"Well, you can go and get lots of food. But you have to go alone, and run fast, okay?" I asked. Gigi nodded once more.

"Iggy-buff."

I walked for another ten minutes before coming to Cherrygrove. I hid in the tree line around the city for a few minutes, and slowly made my way around so that if I left the forest I'd be close to the Pokémart. I crouched on the ground and, taking Gigi off my head, I began to talk to her. "See that building with the blue roof? There is a lot of food and yummy stuff in there. If you get a bunch of food and some circular red and white things, you can have as many cookies as you want."

"Ig, Igglybuff!" Gigi exclaimed, bouncing up and down excitedly. I patted her on the head.

"Alright, have fun!" I said, and nudged her forward. She immediately raced out the trees and made a beeline for the Pokémart, shouting happily all the way. I chuckled and climbed a tree to get a better view of the building.

Through the trees, I saw people jump out of the way as my Igglybuff barreled past them and burst into the open door of the Pokémart. Everything was quiet for a few minutes while Gigi was probably wandering through the Mart. In that time, I mostly watched Pidgeot fly overhead. I was leaning towards one of the bird Pokémon to touch it, when I heard an alarm sound from the town. I jumped backed and had to grip the branch to keep from falling, while the Pidgeot let out a warning call and took wing. I blinked in shock, my heart racing. Still clinging to the branch, I managed to turn around and watched scene unfolding in the town below.

I heard shouting and the sounds of glass breaking coming from the Pokémart, and saw some people give confused glances at it before dragging their children away. Other people stopped and stared. Within moments, Gigi crashed through the glass door and ran through the streets, carrying a few boxes of food- presumably cookies- and Pokéballs. I did a fist pump in the air. My Pokémon was insane, but very smart.

But approximately five seconds later, the store manager skidded out of the Mart and began to chase Gigi. I felt the smile drop from my face and I clawed at the branch. If I go into to the town, I'm totally screwed. I can't go and help her. But if they catch an Igglybuff stealing, what would they do? Actually, probably nothing. I bet they've never had anything like this happen before. They'll just assume it's hungry and give it to Professor Elm to find a responsible owner. Elm probably has these things chipped though, and besides that he can piece one and two together. Then I'll have even more charges added on. Let's count the list, shall we? Stealing a Pokémon, stealing food, not reporting criminal activity, being irresponsible with my Pokémon. In a place where crime in almost nonexistent, I'm probably going to be the shame of Johto for all my life, which will be spent in jail.

But while I was starting to panic- admittedly more for my own safety than hers- Gigi didn't seem to care that, by now, three citizens and the store manager were tailgating her. Though my vision wasn't great from the tree, and she looked like a pink blob, I could hear her laughing happily, along with her occasional cries of 'Igglybuff!' I leaned forward, trying to get a better look, but all I saw was the store manager try to grab her. She just took something she was carrying and chucked it at him. I had to cover my mouth to keep from laughing and alerting my position. Maybe I'd get along with my demonic companion after all.

The store manager screeched as the item flew at his face and he tripped over his own blue apron. The other people with him stopped short and went to check on him, while Gigi rocketed into the bushes. From the look on their faces, I could tell that they knew they'd never be able to catch up to her. I grinned, but was my glee was cut short when I heard a heart broken cry from below.

"Iggy…?" Glancing down, I saw Gigi looking around sadly, wondering where I'd gone. Then, she started to cry. My eyes widened as about a thousand different scenarios flashed through my mind. The townspeople might hear her crying and come find her; a wild Pokémon might sense weak prey and attack; I'd get beaten up again unless I calmed her down A.S.A.P.

I scrambled to the trunk of the tree and reached my foot down to step down onto the next branch, but when I struck out my shoe fell off. "Ah, crap." I muttered. The shoe fell and landed next to Gigi, who looked up and beamed.

"Igglybuff!" She exclaimed, bouncing happily. I winced, realizing that her shouts of joy were just as bad as the crying.

"Shh," I said nervously. "Quiet down!" But, not heeding my warning, she kept crying happily.

"Iggly, buff buff!" She squeaked. I sighed and decided I'd just have to climb down before she'd be quiet. So I let go with one arm and stretched my foot out…only to find that I couldn't reach the branch below me. All the breath left my body. Crap.

I scrabbled to hang on to the tree, but I had assumed that I would land on a branch, so my arm didn't have a very good grip. Within seconds, I was free-falling.

"Iggly?" I heard Gigi say from the ground. I started to scream and desperately tried to grab branches on my way down like in the movies. Of course, that didn't work, and I crashed into the ground with a sickening thump. My Igglybuff wandered over and whispered, "Igglybuff?" But I ignored her and moaned in pain. I was sore from the beating I'd received, and this was only adding onto my misery. Raising my head, I looked past my worried Pokémon and crawled to the bushes lining the edge of town.

People were murmuring and pointing to my area of the forest, and it wasn't hard to guess that they'd heard my screaming and the sound of the impact. My eyes widened and I scrambled backwards. Uh-oh. I had to get out there before someone decided to check out what the noise was.

I shakily stood up, but when I put weight on my right ankle, I had to bite my tongue to keep from screaming again. I stumbled and fell over with a groan. I knew that I couldn't stay there, though, and stuffed the food in my bag, before starting to claw my way through the forest. Yeah, because that's totally going to be effective. Oh well, it's worth a shot. Gigi walked next to me, occasionally prodding my head. But suddenly she turned around and squeaked.

"Iggy-buff! Iggly!" I craned my neck around to see someone walking towards me, looking around in confusion. Then the man's gaze landed on me and his eyes widened.

"Hey, I found what made the noise! It's that Wilson kid, he's here!" The man made a move towards me, and I was sent into overdrive. Hauling myself off the ground and grabbing Gigi, I began hop-running the hell away from Cherrygrove. The man was right behind me, and shouting for me to calm down and stop.

They probably just wanted to help my ankle and persuade me to give Gigi back, and treat me like a confused child, but when you're panicking you don't see the good in people. Instead of him crying, 'Wait! You need medical help, kid!', I heard 'Better run, little boy, you don't want me to catch you!' And so run I did.

The man, realizing that going after me would only make me run faster and hurt myself, gave up chase and headed back to town for back-up. I slowed down and began to limp in a random direction, feeling like my life was stuck on repeat. I ran until my ribs started hurting with each step, and I knew that I would have to stop soon. Except this time, I didn't sit down and calmly wait until I could breathe.

I passed out.


	4. Chapter Three

Chapter Three

When I awoke, I knew immediately that something was wrong. This is probably because I was wrapped in bed sheets instead of pine needles and dirt. If I remembered correctly, I had passed out in the middle of the woods, and I don't think that there was a magical floating mattress there. And if I had seen that, I would've worried that I was hallucinating. Then again, I do have a vague recollection of seeing Falkner in his underwear being laughed at…and that would never happen to the pretty boy. So it's safe to say whatever I did see could be false.

I sat up and looked around the room. It closely resembled a hospital, but judging from all the Pokéball insignias on the equipment, I was probably in a Pokémon Center. An IV was strapped to my arm. I blinked rapidly and hoped that it was a nightmare. These places had security cameras everywhere, and doors with locks meant for the apocalypse. I do not like people, and I wanted to get out of there as fast as I could. But if I was locked in…there was no way I could leave this place without being escorted. This brought another question to mind.

Where was Gigi? What have they done with her? Did they put her in a cramped cage, or send her back to Professor Elm? Or even release her into the wild? Regardless I was screwed. How am I supposed to get out this place without a Pokémon? Granted I could probably escape without one, if I tried hard enough, but what would I do in the wild without something to protect me? I never thought I'd look to an Igglybuff for help, but right now, I would in a heartbeat. If that didn't scream _lame_, I was in an alternate universe.

I swung my legs off the bed and stood up- only to crumple over in pain. "Ah, damn it!" Pain exploded in my ankle. I was pretty sure that it was broken, and my fears were realized when I glanced down to see it wrapped in a cast. Not one of those little braces for when you sprain your ankle, but a huge honking cast. Crap. That basically ruled out any escape plan I could think of. I bit my lip, refusing to give up, and stood on one foot. I officially hate trees now.

"Going somewhere?" A voice asked. My head snapped up to see a brown haired girl about my age at door, wearing an amused expression. She wore a white coat over jeans and a vest shirt.

"Um…yeah. To the bathroom," I ad-libbed, hopping to keep my balance. As my luck would have it, when I jumped I pulled down the bed sheet and tripped on it. My face smashed into the floor with a crack, and I screeched out a string of profanity, my IV almost coming undone.

"Are you okay?" The girl asked, trying to hide her amusement. I scowled at her and struggled to staunch the flow of blood gushing from my nose.

"No! Does it look like I'm okay? My nose is leaking a waterfall of blood!" I snapped irritably. The girl only rolled her eyes.

"It's called a _water_fall for a reason. That, my friend, would be a blood-fall." She pointed at my nose, and I groaned.

"Whatever. Just get out of here and leave me alone." I grabbed the pristine white sheet and wiped my bloody nose with it, not particularly caring that it would leave a huge red stain. Someone would go apeshit when they found it, but that wasn't my concern. My concern was getting rid of this pesky girl.

"Mm…sorry, but no. I need money and my job is to take care of you, so sit back down and eat your lunch." She walked over to my bed and set a tray of food down on a folding table next to it. I scowled at her for a minute, but then realized something.

"Wait…what do you mean by _lunch_? I already had lunch. It's suppertime by now. Wow, for a nurse you sure are air-headed." I snorted, standing back up and lowering myself to the bed. The girl narrowed her blue eyes and slapped me across the face. "Ow! What was that for?" I hissed, rubbing the red mark on my cheek.

"For calling me an airhead. And for your information, Mr. Know-It-All, you've practically been comatose for two days." She snapped.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa." I replied, stunned. "Two whole days? Holy crap! I have to get out of here…" I mumbled. Then I turned and glared at the girl. "Where did they take my Pokémon?" I demanded, trying to seem threatening.

She just rolled her eyes. "It's not your Pokémon anymore- and it never was. You _stole_ it, brainless." I could tell that she wasn't pleased to be dealing with me. "Look, I'm not going to humor you anymore. I have a job to do so I can make enough money to go on my journey. So if you'll just eat your soup…" She gestured towards the tray.

I snorted. "The irony…okay, Miss Priss, let's establish something right now: I don't cater to people. It's not my problem if you're supposed to force-feed me for money, and I certainly won't do it if you lie to my face."

This time, she blinked. "What do you mean? I never lied to you. I'm supposed to nurse you back to health or whatever. This is part of my job, honestly." I couldn't help rolling my eyes.

"No, I meant about the Igglybuff. It is my Pokémon, and…I'll press charges!" I attempted to keep a defiant look on my face, but it was obvious that I was bluffing. To make matters worse, I was actually worried about Gigi, and I'm sure that the girl realized that as well.

She sighed. "Stop being so self-entitled. I heard Nurse Joy and the other officials talking. Your little friend is being sent back to Professor Elm so he can find a _responsible_ Trainer to care for it!" She picked up a spoon and shoved it into my hand. "Now eat so I can get out of here!"

That's when I snapped. "No!" I screeched. "I'm not going to eat that poison at the whim of my enemies! Never!" I gripped the sheet tightly and covered my mouth with it. "I will not succumb to your wishes!" My voice was slightly muffled by the cotton.

The girl raised an eyebrow. "Wow…someone's a few badges short of a league. I better let the mental institution know that their patient has been apprehended. But seriously…what are you on?"

I lowered the sheet. "I'm not on anything. Unless this IV has been giving me too much morphine." I ripped the tube from my arm, setting off some sort of alarm. The machine emitted a high pitched beeping noise which I completely ignored. The girl, on the other hand, plugged her ears.

"What was that for?" She hissed. "You can't just mess around with the equipment, stupid! I'll get in trouble!" She glared at me, but I ignored her.

"Again, not my problem." I stated, putting my good foot down on the cold off white tile. I noticed a pair of crutches next to the bed and grabbed them. I shifted until I was relatively comfortable on them and walked a few steps to test. "Much better. Now if you'll excuse me, I have rescue mission to attend." I took a swig of the milk from my tray and hobbled towards the door. The girl rushed in front of me and blocked my exit.

"Are you crazy?" She exclaimed. "You'll be in a ton of trouble if you try to leave!" Her eyes were widened, probably at the prospect of being fired.

I snorted. "I think it's safe to say that I'm already in trouble. Besides, if I escape, it won't be a problem. Now get out of my way!" I swung at her with a crutch, but she quickly jumped out of my way. "Yeah, that's what I thought- hey, what the hell, did someone _bathe_ me?" I caught a whiff of a sickly sweet scent. I sniffed my arm to make sure that it was, indeed, coming from me.

"Uh…yes. Dude, it's been almost four days since you stole that Igglybuff. Of course someone washed you; you smelled disgusting. I doubt that you took a shower in the woods. So you hadn't been clean since the night you broke into Elm's lab."

"Well…actually, I didn't shower that day either." I admitted. "I was busy scheming and stuff." I shrugged nonchalantly.

The girl gagged. "That's such guy thing to do," She shuddered. "Anyways, I have other jobs to do today, so I'm going to pretend we never had this conversation. Do not mention that I let you out if you get caught," She said, clearly giving up trying to make me see reason.

"No problem, sunshine." I said with a smirk. "Run along now; I'm sure you have other patients to torture." I paused. "By the way, what town am I in?"

"You really expect me to answer you after saying that?" She scowled, but added, "This is Violet City. Didn't they say that's your hometown?"

I bit my lip and held back a rude remark about Falkner, but before I could reply the door opened. "Kimi?" A lady asked, peeking into the room. "Why is the machine beeping? And where have you been? The Slowpoke with a broken leg needs to be fed." She glanced at me, puzzlement written across her face. "Why is he out of bed?"

I opened my mouth to respond, but once again was cut off. "He wanted some exercise. I was just walking him back to his bed. And I'll get right on that," The girl, apparently named Kimi, said quickly. A fake smile was plastered on her face and I had to choke back a laugh.

"Just a cough," I said when I received stares from both of them. Kimi's stare was a bit scrutinizing, but I pretend not to notice. "I'll be, uh…heading to rest now." The crutches clicked on the floor as I made my way back to the bed. I slowly sat down and the lady looked away.

"Alright then…" She said. "Just tell me if you need anything, Kimi." She backed out and closed the door. Kimi whipped around and glared at me.

"Smart boy, playing along. Just so you know, if your antics get me fired, I will hunt you down and give you hell." Then she stormed out of the room, leaving me alone in the eerie silence. Well, it wasn't silent for long. Within moments my laughter filled the air.

"Oh, that was priceless," I chuckled to myself. I knew that now I'd have to wait a few minutes before trying to escape, so I figured that I might as well eat. Who knew how long it'd be before I'd have food again? I turned to the tray of food on the table and looked over my dinner. There was a carton of milk as previously mentioned, a sandwich, soup and an apple. "Wow, that's a five star meal right there," I muttered, picking up the apple and taking a bite of it.

I eat apples differently than most people. I eat the skin off first and then the insides. That sentence makes me sound like a really tactful zombie, doesn't it? Whatever, if people want to make assumptions let them. At least I'd be left alone. After chewing the apple down the core, I pulled the bread of the sandwich and looked around for a trashcan to toss the mystery meat in. There was little toothpick in the sandwich with a flag that read _ham_, but what kind of ham is brown?

I spotted a cylindrical container on the other side of the cream colored room. I hoped that it was a waste bin and struggled back onto the crutches. Tucking the meat under my arm, I limped over to the container. Unfortunately, when I got there, I realized that it wasn't a trashcan at all. It was some sort of medieval torture device, or so it seemed. From up close, you could see that it was a metal shelving unit- why it was rounded, I don't know. But the top was open, the lid dangling behind it. And inside was a drawer full of carefully placed needles. So, so many needles, gleaming under the fluorescent light. Like they were out there for me, to say 'This is your fate if you try to escape!' I could feel my eye physically twitch as I quickly backed away on my crutches, dropping the ham and once again falling to the ground.

The crutches clattered to the floor behind me and I shrieked as I landed on one of them. Typical. "Ah, hell! Is the universe against me?" I hollered, tears pricking in my eyes. I rolled off the crutch and massaged my foot, which was probably double-broken now. I could almost taste the paradox.

Someone burst into the room, and I turned around to see the lady from before in the doorway. I mentally groaned and glanced at myself helplessly. The woman walked towards me, her high heels clicking on the tile. Who wears heels in a Pokémon Center? She looked both flustered and worried. "What have you done to yourself, hon?" She asked with a sigh. "Come on, you should get some rest. We can't have you running around and hurting yourself." Her slender hands grabbed my wrists and forced me to my feet. Keeping my bad foot off the ground, I managed to stand with her help.

"I'm not tired…" I protested, wobbling on my left foot. Of course I had to break my dominant ankle. "From what I heard, I've been asleep for two days!" The lady pursed her lips.

"Kimi wasn't supposed to tell you that," She muttered. Well, that's just wonderful. Now the crazy girl was going to come after me for letting that slip. The woman glanced at me and sighed. "Alright, fine. But if you're so able-bodied, why don't you visit the person who paid your bail fee?" She asked. My bail fee? Wow, I really screwed myself over this time. Well, I did until my parents got me out of it. I almost wished they hadn't, because I hate relying on them. But I supposed I could spare them five minutes before taking off. I never really said goodbye beforehand anyways. Not that I cared to, but still.

"Alright," I said. "Where is he?" It had to be my father. My mom wouldn't want to look at me after I'd done something so horrible and low. She'd always preferred to think that I was going to suddenly blossom into a little angel, and I guess I just crushed that dream.

She blinked. "You know who…? Never mind. Just come with me." She stooped down and picked up the crutches to hand to me. I tucked them beneath my arms and steadily hobbled out the door.

The woman led me through hallways lined with doors. There were X-Ray and CAT scan rooms, along with many doors just labeled 'Employees Only.' Ever wondered what the back of the Pokémon Center looks like, through the door behind the smiling broad at the desk? Exactly like a doctor's office, but for Pokémon. I guess that, since I'm here, people think of me as an animal. How sweet.

The nurse lady stopped at a door labeled 'Visiting Room 3' and knocked. She was answered by a muffled 'Come in!' She pushed the door open and I walked into the frigid room. Why do medical centers always have to be subzero? Is there a law that states that all professional buildings must be cold enough to house Regice? I heard the door close quietly behind me as I walked forward. A blue haired man was crouched over in a chair, and he was the only person in the room. My entire body screamed that this was the perfect place for my father to commit homicide and get rid of the family shame, but I forced myself to calm down.

"Dad, I am so sorry," I began nervously, starting towards him. "I never meant for anything of this happen. Well…I mean, I did want a Pokémon, but I wasn't thinking straight, and I hope you can find it in your heart to forgi-" I was abruptly cut off when the man shifted in his seat, clearly telling me to shut up. I swallowed, my throat going dry. I slowly approached him. Then he raised his head.

"Dad?" The man smirked, his face a younger replica of my father. "Ouch, bro. I'm not that old." I stared at him, stopping mid-stride. It wasn't my father. It was Falkner.


	5. Chapter Four

Chapter Four

"What are you doing here?" I snarled angrily, all my apologies thrown out the window. I couldn't believe him. Wait, never mind- I _could_ believe him. As usual, he had found the perfect opportunity to watch me squirm in my shoes as I had to accept his offer of help. What a monster.

"Why, I'm just helping my wee little brother out. Seems like he's bitten off more than he can chew again." Falkner responded with an innocent smile. I can't even tell you how much I hated him at that moment.

"I was doing just fine without you," I hissed. "So don't pull your crap with me. I know you, Falkner. You only did this to help your image. To be the kind big brother who helps his confused, misunderstood little sibling."

Falkner laughed. "You know me too well. I mostly just came to see your reaction, though. Dad wasn't going to help you this time, and there was no way you'd be able to afford the bail fee. If I didn't pay it, you'd be stuck in jail. And I can't have rumors about a corrupted family going around, now can I?" He smirked and crossed his legs in the chair.

"I hate you. I really, really hate you. Using my misfortunes to make yourself look like a freaking gift from Arceus." I said, sitting down in a chair. "But hey, it's alright. I understand why you did it."

This time, I caught Falkner off guard. "Is that so?" He asked. I could practically hear him thinking, _Wow, he understands why I'm an ass- because I have responsibilities and an image to protect as a gym leader._ Oh yes, I knew why he had to be a little concerned about how his family would reflect on him. But it didn't mean he had to be so rude and defensive.

"Yeah," I replied with a smile. "When you're on a losing streak, you have to constantly prove to Violet City that you aren't a failure." For the second time that day, someone reared forward and smacked me.

"You arrogant little twerp!" He hissed. "I should've let you rot in a jail cell! Even getting praise from everyone isn't worth putting up with you. I wish you'd never even been born! Why can't you be more like Samantha?" Falkner growled, leaning back to sit down again.

I raised a hand to my face and touched my cheek. Between Kimi and Falkner, it was probably going to bruise. "Um…because I'm not an eleven year old girl? Honestly, maybe I'm not the crazy one here." I snorted. Obviously that wasn't what he meant, but right now I didn't want to speak civilly to him.

"You're such an immature little kid," Falkner snapped. "I thought that she was the youngest sibling, but now I'm not so sure. Just leave here and go live your miserable life all alone in the woods. You've already screwed up so badly that no one will look at you the same way ever again, so why don't you go and start your _journey_ as a homeless drug addict?" He sneered. "Oh wait, that's right. You can't, because you don't have a Pokémon to save your butt from wild animals anymore." Grinning, he plucked a Pokéball from his pocket and twirled it on his finger. "Professor Elm gave me the honor of becoming your companion's new care taker."

My eyes widened and then narrowed angrily. "Give her back, you creep!" I shouted. About a thousand threats were running through my head, but I think that the basic Kindergarten level sentence I'd used was good enough.

Falkner laughed. "Oh, it's a she? I'm not really surprised. You have to have some kind of girl around to do the cooking- it's not like you'll ever get a girlfriend."

"I cannot possibly fathom what was going through your head when you strung together that immensely sexist and disturbing sentence."

"And you'll never find out," He replied, grinning slyly. "Now, I'm going to have some fun. You have to encourage me to give back the Igglybuff. Otherwise I'll just keep her in this Pokéball in the back of the gym for the rest of her life. Time's a-ticking. Enlighten me."

"You're a sick, twisted freak, you know that?" I growled. "How the hell did you ever become gym leader?" Falkner only smiled at me, as if to say, _I'll never tell_. And because I knew he was serious about the Pokéball thing, I sighed. "I don't know what you want from me," I said lamely. "I just want my Pokémon back. I'll do anything, just please give her to me."

Falkner chuckled. "Now, that's not fun at all. I'm not sure what I want. Just make me a promise and if you're lucky it'll persuade me." He grinned, clearly enjoying my misery.

I felt my heart plummet to the pit of my stomach. Come to think of it, I'd always hated that metaphor. Why would the heart stop in your stomach? People have complete digestive tracts. So, it would land at the very end. Yeah. My heart plummeted down to my rectum. "I…I'll tell everyone I meet that you're the greatest gym leader ever?" I suggested tiredly.

"Sorry, not good enough." Falkner beamed even wider. "Keep going, little brother." I groaned, already fed up with this disturbing game. It was like a horror movie where the killer makes the victims plead for mercy and then murders them anyways.

"I hope you know that I'll never be pleased to call you my brother," I muttered, slumping back in the hard wooden chair and gazed around the room. Much like the room I'd been in before, this place had off-white walls. But there was a carpet here instead of tile, and a bin of toys that had probably never seen antiseptic spray for kids who were forced to wait in this room. Chairs were lined up around the room, and Falkner was in one against the wall across from the door. I was in a chair in the bottom right corner, diagonal from him. But it was a small room and the space between us was probably about ten feet in length, maximum. The covered bulbs on the ceiling gave off a dim, yellowish light and buzzed loudly. Quite a beautiful scene. "I will work in your gym for free?" I asked in exasperation.

Falkner shook his head, still smirking. "I don't want anything to do with you, although the 'free' part almost made me change my mind."

I scowled for a moment, but then felt the breath leave my body. Now I understood wanted he wanted. What he really wanted. Falkner and I had never been very close as kids, like most brothers are. Him being elected as gym leader while I hid in his shadow only furthered the distance between us. Right now, all we want is for the other to feel pain. Not physical pain, no, nothing like that. But for our hearts to be crushed, to feel unwanted and left out. What he doesn't know is that already do, somewhat. I mean, it's obvious to him that I resent him for the attention he gets. I don't really thrive on other people's praise like he does, though. But that's getting off topic. What Falkner wants is for me to feel alone and hopeless. As if my life was over.

"You want me to leave, don't you?" I asked quietly. "To never come back. So I'll be alone and you won't have to see me ever again." Falkner, who had been sitting and waiting impatiently for an answer, slowly shook his head, a twisted and slightly insane grin appearing on his face.

"I want more than that, Jared." He said in a demented voice. "I want to make sure that you can never come back. No matter how scared or hopeless you are, you can't return to your family. They wouldn't exactly greet you with open arms anyways. But I want proof." He leaned forward. "I want you to fake your death."

I gasped, not expecting him to say that. I mean, I knew he was crazy, but I never imagined he'd take this so far. I glanced down at my feet nervously. Men shouldn't show fear. Fear is a sign of weakness, and no woman wants a man who needs to cower behind her for protection. But right now I felt more than fear. I wanted to burst out crying. I would be glad to never speak to Falkner again, but I had some people that I cared about. My parents weren't the best, because they paid more attention to Falkner nowadays, but they were okay. And Sammy…she's the only person I'm sure that I love. I didn't know if I'd be able to go on without her. I didn't want to be without her. I didn't want to make her cry by pretending to be dead. Worse, I didn't want to fake my death and find out that she _wasn't_ upset. But I knew that I had to, if I wanted to get anywhere in life. Elm would never trust me with a Pokémon again, so if I didn't take Gigi, I'd never go on my journey. I would end up as a pathetic old man working at the Pokémart.

I sat there for a minute, thinking about this. My vision began to cloud, and soon tears were splashing down and darkening the brown carpet. I sniffed and wiped my eyes, feeling as if my world was ending. Because, in a way, it was. I didn't stay strong for very long. Within moments I had to struggle not to bawl my eyes out. "I'll do it," I sobbed. "If you'll give her back and let me go, I'll do it. Just promise me…promise me that you'll take care of Sammy. Don't let her be sad. Make sure she doesn't give up on anything just because she thinks I'm dead." My body spasmed as I choked back a wail.

Falkner snorted. "I'll take care of her, don't you worry. I'm generally a nice person, just not when you're involved. But I might not need to help her through it. Maybe she doesn't love you as much as you think she does."

"Shut up! Don't say that!" I screeched, tears still running down my face.

"Oh, is the little baby more sensitive than he makes himself out to be?" Falkner snickered. He looked at my face, red and puffy from crying, and smirked. "I guess so."

"Just go away," I whispered, hiding my face. "I don't want to see you anymore!"

"Soon you won't have to," He sneered. "Meet me out front tonight, and I'll help you get out. As long as you promise not to come back."

"I won't come back." I promised, scrubbing my face clean of tears. I slowly composed myself. "But how will I get out?"

Falkner stood up and walked towards the door. "Make an excuse. Say you need to use the bathroom or something. I don't care, just be there by ten." And then he walked out of the room.

_Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick_. The ancient alarm clock on my nightstand counted down the minutes until I left everything I loved behind. You know how in the movies and books and stuff, when people are dreading something the clock goes _tick-tock, tick-tock_? Well, it doesn't work like that at all. It just ticks like any other clock, but it seems much more anxious to you. I glanced over with a sigh and looked at the time. 9:45 pm.

I clambered off the bed and onto my crutches, and limped around the room for a few minutes, trying to get the hang of walking like this. If I was going to be legally dead, I wouldn't be able to look to anyone for help if I had trouble moving around. When I was sure that I could at least make it out the door on my own, I quietly slipped into the hallway.

Since almost no one was on duty this late, the building was eerily quiet, and strange shadows were cast on the wall. I was so jumpy that I interpreted the saying 'scared by your own shadow' about five times. The clicking of my crutches on the floor only made it worse, like footsteps following me. Oh Arceus, _is _there someone behind me? I thought I heard- no, that's just water in the pipes.

I rounded a corner, nearly smacking my head into one of those unnecessary wooden paper holders on the wall. Crossing the small room, I opened a door and stepped out into the main waiting room. To my left was the machine where the can automatically heal minor injuries on Pokémon. I was behind the service desk. Not for long though, because I nudged the free-swinging gate open and hobbled towards the outside door. I kept glancing behind me, even though no one was in the room, expecting someone to jump out and pile drive me or something. But, miraculously, I made it out with no problems. It was almost too easy- but then again, Falkner really wanted me gone. I'm sure he'd do whatever it took to get me out of there. Besides, my fee was paid. The only reason I was here was for my ankle and the possibility of being criminally insane.

Outside I could hear the chirping of bug Pokémon and Rattatta in the bushes, which only made me more edgy. I slowly wandered around the Pokémon Center of my hometown, looking for Falkner. I stopped under a street light, wanting to be in the open so that he could find me. And find me, he did. Unfortunately he chose to show this by grabbing me from behind and covering my mouth, and then dragging me into the woods.

"What was that for?" I hissed once he let go, reminding myself of the Kimi girl. Which did ease my mind a bit. If she thought I was dead she wouldn't try to find and kill me.

Falkner grinned in the dim moonlight. "I felt like being the last person from your childhood to mess with your head." He replied nonchalantly. I only rolled my eyes, beyond fed up with his stupidity.

"Just tell me your brilliant plan and go back to gloating about your perfect life," I snapped angrily. Falkner shrugged.

"Alright, if you insist." He said. He took a bag off his shoulders, and I noticed that it was my old one. He pulled out a pair of scissors, a bottle of water and a tube of something. He cut off a chunk of my hair, then dumped the water on my head and squirted the substance from the tube into my hair, rubbing it in.

"What are you doing?" I exclaimed, pushing his hands away. "I can bathe myself, you know!" What is it with people these days? I am capable of practicing hygiene by myself…usually.

"Don't be so dumb. It's hair bleach," Falkner snorted, emptying the rest of the water onto my head. He studied me carefully. "It worked well. Oh, and one more thing." He pulled out a small case and tapped his finger in it before proceeding to stab me in the eye.

"Ow!" I growled, trying to swat his hands away. "I'm beginning to question your motives here!"

"They're contacts." He replied, poking my in the other eye. "You now have blonde hair and brown eyes. This is what you wear now. And it's the only outfit I have, so expect to do some laundry." He chucked a red shirt and a pair of jean shorts at me. Yeah, I would really be living it up in style. "As for the plan. You leave that chunk of hair and your old shirt in the woods, but rip it up first. And put this Ariados string nearby," Falkner said, handed me a silky clump of string. "Oh, and this." He pulled out a Zephyr Badge and slashed it across my arm, drawing blood.

"Ah! Stop it, are you trying to kill me for real?" I grumbled, pulling off my shirt and putting on the red one.

"No, I'm trying to make this look real," He responded, wiping the blood on my old shirt. "So basically you make it look like an Ariados took off with you. You can leave Igglybuff fur there if you feel like it too."

"Well, I will praise your thought process. How long have you been planning this?" I muttered.

"Oh, this is only one scenario I've envisioned while hating your guts. Now, why don't you come give your big brother a goodbye hug?" He asked, spreading his arms out wide.

I smiled and leaned forward, as if to hug him, and then flipped him the bird. Falkner laughed. "Same as ever. Oh, and here." He tossed me the Zephyr Badge. "I've changed my mind. Since you need my badge to challenge other gyms, and I want you to have enough money to live away from me, I'm giving you the Zephyr Badge. But you haven't earned it. I expect a real battle. If you manage to defeat every other gym leader in Johto…" He smirked. "Which I doubt, but if you can…then you can come back. And if you beat me, I'll let you back into the family."

"So you're in charge of deciding who's earned a place in the house now?" I said with a dry laugh, putting the Badge in my pocket. I could feel my spirits lifting. For now he controls my future, by maybe not forever. I'll train, and I _will_ beat him!

"Seems like it, yeah." He handed me my bag and Gigi's Pokéball. "Nice seeing you again, Jared."

"Nice seeing you too, single-celled scumbag." I replied evenly. Then, swinging the bag onto my shoulder, I ran into the night.


	6. Chapter Five

Chapter Five

I looked down at my Pokégear. According to the clock, it was midnight. I watched the clock while I walked, having nothing better to do. It had been around two hours since I left Falkner, but I hadn't walked very far- just slowly. The clock blinked. _12:01_. A new day. A new life.

I had decided to wait until day break to let Gigi back out. It had been two, almost three days since she'd been out of her Pokéball, and I didn't want her to freak out and run away in the dark where I couldn't find her. At least, I hoped that it was Gigi in the Pokéball and not a real Ariados or something. I really would not put that past Falkner.

I found a relatively decent clearing in the woods and sat down, opening my bag. I pulled out my old shirt and, using the Zephyr Badge, cut it up. These Badge things are sharp! And we're giving them out to ten year olds? Yikes. After I had the bloodied shirt looking like it belonged to a hobo, I tossed it on the ground along with the string and hair. I don't know how to make this look believable because honestly, faking my own death is beyond even me. Really, the thought never crossed my mind until Falkner said to.

I rooted through the bag, finding money, food, Pokéballs, potions, and a fake ID. A fake ID! Wow, Falkner really wanted me gone. The ID listed me as Jack Reynolds, a seventeen year old Pokémon Trainer from Unova. Why would someone from Unova come to Johto? Well, anyways, I was certainly tall enough to look seventeen, but I sure as hell couldn't act it. I'm just a horrible liar in general.

I scuffed my shoes on the ground and made it look like I was dragged away or some crap, and then walked off into the woods. I am going to get Falkner for this. He knew that I had to do what he said, if I wanted a chance at becoming a Trainer, so not only did he delight in it, but he also made it as horrible as possible. But it didn't matter, I would defeat every gym leader in Johto, and then I'd come back and pummel Falkner. And then he would have to explain to the entire region what happened. After that, _he'd_ be the outcast. Not me, not ever again. I would bring pride to my family.

It wasn't long before I became tired from walking, and because my ankle was sore anyways, I decided to rest. After searching hopelessly for a place to sleep, I just sat down in the middle of nowhere. Using ferns as a mattress, I fell into a dreamless slumber.

"Just one more minute," I mumbled to myself. "Then I'll let her out." Gigi's Pokéball wobbled impatiently in response to my voice. Whether she knew what I was saying or was just bored in there, I didn't know. But she certainly wanted out, pronto.

It had to be at least ten in the morning by now. Twelve hours since…yeah. Hardly half a day had passed, and already I was starting to panic. That just spoke volumes about my future. Oh Arceus, what was I going to do? Maybe it's not too late to sneak back in and make an excuse to the nurses…

Except I knew it definitely was too late, because although Falkner didn't have any leverage on me if I gave up on being a Trainer, he'd probably try to convince them that I was insane or something just to get back at me. He really was that kind of person when it came to me. So I would just have to swallow my pride (cries of despair), grit my teeth (not burst into tears) and stick it out (hope I survived more than a day).

I pressed the button on Gigi's Pokéball and let her out before slumping to the ground. Hopefully she wouldn't take her anger out on me, because honestly that was the last thing I needed right now. For a moment, I saw nothing. Then I saw stars.

"Igglybuff!" She shouted. "Iggy!" To say she was pissed would be an understatement, but I just flinched and tried to avoid eye contact. I must look like death incarnate. Crappy clothes, a bruised cheek, and now the beginnings of a black eye. That's only the beginning of the list, because I haven't even covered my emotions. And I won't, because I'm not a teenage girl whining over some break up. I am a...man, who let his own brother blackmail him into faking his own death. Alright, so maybe I'm not the greatest person out there, but at least I'm trying!

Gigi punched me a few more times, but stopped when I didn't react. I wondered if she was like a sibling- they gave up trying to cause problems when you didn't let it bother you. But I quickly pushed that thought out my head, unwilling to think about siblings. I just looked at Gigi, frowning. "Finished with your daily kick boxing class, Gigi?" I asked tiredly.

"Iggy?" Was her response. Then she looked at me really sadly and I immediately felt guilty. At that moment I realized that I will never be one of those Trainers who just collects tons of Pokémon for bragging rights, because I can't even keep one happy. However, I did need at least one more Pokémon, because when I got to Azalea Town I'd be challenging Bugsy. I know I can't beat a gym leader with just an Igglybuff.

"Yeah, yeah," I said to Gigi, standing. "Come on, hop on my head already." I said, trying to smile. One minute I'm depressed, next I'm trying to see the brighter side of things, such as defeating a gym. If I thought Gigi was bipolar…

We walked for about an hour before reaching the Ruins of Alph, which made me seriously wonder about my sense of direction, because it should only be a ten minute walk from Violet City. Was I walking towards Cherrygrove last night?

"Look, Gigi, it's the Ruins!" I said, walking in. No tourists were wandering around today, but I didn't bother to go into the buildings. I knew they were full of ancient writings that no one had ever decoded. I had come here quite often as a little kid, ever since the first time my mom showed me this place. I even tried figuring out the hieroglyphs myself, but it didn't exactly work. I did get to see a lot of artifacts, though, and I even spotted a few Unown on occasion. I never tried to catch them because of the urban myths about being cursed, but they were pretty cool. Not many people are able to truthfully say that they've seen Unown. You have to be very patient.

I stood in the middle of the Ruins, lost in memories that I'd never have again, oblivious to the outside world until Gigi squealed and pulled on my hair. "Wha…?" I glanced up at her, but she was pointing worriedly at something in front of us. I blinked and followed her gaze. At first I couldn't see anything, but then I noticed a cream colored lump of fur huddled against one of the mausoleums. "Huh?" I wondered aloud. "What is it?" I jogged up to it, feeling uneasiness growing in my chest. Upon further inspection, I realized that it was a Smeargle, one of the rarest Pokémon in Johto.

It's breathing was shallow and it's eyes were closed. I had to swallow the lump that had formed in my throat when I saw it, because it was clear that it had been hurt very badly. It couldn't see the injury from this angle, but blood was staining the ground beneath it. What's worse is that it wasn't hurt by a Pokémon. Pokémon can't hurt their opponents like this. The Smeargle had been attacked by a human.

"Smeargle…" It mumbled. I glanced around nervously. If I left it now I would be a horrible person, but I didn't want to risk going back to Violet City. Unfortunately, Azalea Town was more than a day's journey away, and I doubted that potions could fix this. So, with a resigned sigh, I reached down to pick it up. It tried to bite me a few times, but it really wasn't all that effective. In fact, it would've been comical if it wasn't so depressing.

Gigi was less than pleased that she wasn't the center of attention, but I guess she realized how bad the situation was, because she spent the entire trip trying to comfort the Smeargle. Unless of course she was whispering death threats in a comforting way.

I ran back to Violet City as fast as I could, carrying the Smeargle. Like a lot of little kids, I used to want to be a hero that carried people out of burning buildings. But now I can tell you that it's a lot harder to do that kind of stuff than the movies make it out to be. This time, I stayed on the trails and reached the city in record time, but I didn't feel proud that I'd helped a Smeargle or ran fast. My thoughts were occupied by the thought of running into Falkner and dealing with his wrath.

I ran past people who gave my strange looks and burst into the Pokémon Center I'd only recently left. I made a beeline for the service desk to tell them about the Smeargle, but I stopped about halfway across the room. It was the definition of chaos in there. People were running around and shouting, and a little girl was crying in a corner. I looked around wildly and waited for my surroundings to set in. Soon I realized that everyone was talking about me. The word 'Jared' was thrown around at least ten times a minute at this rate, and there were even police officers in the room.

I felt a tug of my sleeve and whirled around, hoping that no one recognized me. I gasped when I saw that it was a young girl with blonde hair- the one that had been crying. It was Samantha. I panicked, thinking that she knew it was me, but my fears were soon put to rest. She sniffled and held up a picture of me. "You're a Trainer right? Have you seen this guy? He-he's my brother and he went missing last night. Ev-everyone's saying he's dead but they won't tell me why they think that. I bet he just ran off 'cause he was scared of what would happen to him. He was the guy that stole a Pokémon from Professor Elm."

I looked at her sadly, every nerve in my body screaming at me to tell her the truth. I missed her already and wanted more than anything to just come home. But I couldn't. I just couldn't. Literally, because Falkner would kill me.

"I'm sorry, but I haven't seen him." I said to Samantha, making my voice deeper and unrecognizable. "I'll tell you if I do, though." I lied, trying to end the conversation before she realized who I was.

She looked away, her eyes clouding with tears again. "Okay. Thank you, sir." She said softly. Then she shuffled away, leaving me alone and upset.

I shook my head tiredly and walked up to Nurse Joy, carrying the Smeargle. At least I'd seen Sammy one last time. I had really hoped that I wouldn't have to see Falkner, though. "Ma'am, I need help." I said, and the nurse looked up. "I, um…found this Smeargle in the Ruins of Alph, and kinda need help, you know, healing it."

She gave me a strange look. "Uh…alright, we'll get right on that." She said, taking the Pokémon from my arms. She walked to the back room, muttering about kids with no conversational skills. Well it's true that I didn't exactly use a college level sentence, but it's pretty obvious that the Smeargle needed to be fixed up.

While I waited for news about the Smeargle, I rented a room in the Pokémon Center for the night and got lunch. Falkner really should not trust me with large quantities of money. Afterwards, I didn't really see a point in 'seeing the sights' since I'd grown up in Violet City, so I just went up to the room and decided to get some rest. The last few days had drained me, which was ridiculous from anyone else's point of view because I had slept for forty-eight hours straight.

The room was pretty nice; it had a kitchenette and two beds to choose from. The first one hadn't been made since the last person rented the room though, so I tossed my stuff onto the floor and climbed the clean bed. I was almost asleep when the door opened. I sat up, wide awake at once, and was met by a scream.

I saw a girl about my age for half a second before a backpack crashed into my face. "Ow! What are you doing?" I screeched, pushing the backpack off and staggering out of the bed. "And why does everyone use my face as a punching bag?!"

"Get out of here, you creepy perv!" The girl shouted. "Arceus, why are men such pigs?" She had black hair and neon green eyes, and an Umbreon was balancing delicately on her shoulder despite it's size.

"What do you mean?" I grumbled, stumbling to keep my balance. "This is my room! You barged in on me!"

The girl glared at me. "Liar! This is my keycard, to prove it!" She held it up for me to see. It read _Room 08_, same as mine.

"Oh yeah, well, this is _my_ keycard!" I showed it to her, feeling triumphant. She stared at it for a minute, then scowled.

"Why would they put two teenagers in the same room?" She asked, annoyance audible in her voice.

I shrugged, still kind of angry that I'd been wrongfully accused. "I don't know, but I want to sleep, so…" I walked back over to my bed and flopped down on it. The girl rolled her eyes.

"Right, well, if you're going to be in here, I'm not. So, adios…" Then she walked out and slammed the door. I sat there, any chance of sleep disappearing before my eyes as I realized that the conversation had woken me up. Now I felt kind of nervous. My first day on my own, and I pissed off a cute girl, lied to my sister, got beaten up by an Igglybuff again and found a nearly dead Smeargle. Was the universe sending me a message? I guess I'd just have to wait and find out.


	7. Chapter Six

Chapter Six

"Wake up. Dude, I said wake up. C'mon, out, I need to get dressed." A finger prodded my face and I blinked sleepily.

"Wha…?" I mumbled tiredly. I cracked my eyes open. Through my sleep blurred vision, I could see the girl from yesterday standing next to my bed. I looked at her for a moment, then rolled over and snuggled into the covers. It was way too early to get out of bed. I'd gotten very little sleep after the encounter with her last night.

A searing pain erupted in my back. "I said, wake the hell up!" The girl shouted. I jumped, clutching my back.

"Watch it! There's no reason to hit me." I hissed, tears smarting my vision. I seriously think that I should consider becoming a punching bag, because lately everyone seems to be using me like one. She snorted.

"Yes there is, you wouldn't get up and I have to change." She replied matter-of-factly. I only stared at her, feeling the pain slowly subside.

"So?" I asked incredulously. "What does that have to do with anything?" The girl looked at me as if I was insane.

"It has to do with, you're a guy and I'm a girl, and I don't want a boy in the room while I'm getting dressed!" I noticed for the first time that she was wearing a nightgown.

"Oh," I replied dumbly.

She rolled her eyes. "Just get out." She said as I stood up and stretched. Grabbing my hand, she dragged me across the room towards the exit. I kind of hopped to stay on balance. I knew I shouldn't have ditched my crutches in the woods…

"Wait a minute," I said, digging my good heel into the floor while she opened the door. "You're going to lock me out of the room? In a Pokémon Center, where there are people?"

"That's kind of obvious." She said, pushing me into the hallway. I stuck my hand in the doorway so she couldn't close the door.

"But-but in case you haven't noticed, I'm only wearing boxers!" I protested.

"That's your problem, not mine." She said, pushing my fingers away. "I'll let you in afterwards."

My face flamed red. Hadn't I had enough embarrassment in the past few days, without having the Pokémon Trainers Violet City see me half naked? "You can't do this to me, uh…you can't- what's your name?" I asked.

"Luna," She responded, putting a hand on her hip.

"Oh. I'm Jar- I'm Jack. Well, you can't do this to me, Luna!" I exclaimed. Luna slammed the door, and I heard the lock click.

Her muffled voice reached me through the door. "I just did."

"What do you mean, you can't give him back to me? I found him!" I said angrily.

"Yes, but you did not catch him. Which means we have to release him into the wild…" The nurse responded. I'd been arguing with her for the past ten minutes about the Smeargle, and for some reason these idiots were going to let a newly healed Pokémon loose near a city where my brother was running free. Also, I was still wearing only my boxers, which probably didn't help my argument.

"Well, what if I caught him?" I asked, rolling my eyes. "Would that change your mind?"

"Well…yes." She said hesitantly, glancing at the Smeargle curled up in a cage next to her. Honestly, I used to think that I was stupid, but now I'm not so sure. I might be the smartest person alive, in fact, from what I've seen in the past week.

I gave her a look and pulled a Pokéball from my pocket, opening the door to the cage. The Smeargle raised it's head sleepily and looked at me before I tossed the Pokéball at him. The nurse stared at me, but I only shrugged. If they weren't going to protect the Pokémon from whatever had attacked him, I would. I used to look down on weaker people, but after the past few days I have a new outlook on that subject. It's not fun to be manipulated and tossed around like a sack of potatoes, and I felt bad for anyone who was.

Judging from the Smeargle's condition, I was surprised that it actually tried to fight it's way out of the Pokéball. It didn't manage to escape, but it did make an attempt.

After the Pokéball stopped shaking, I picked it up and looked at the nurse. "Now can I keep it?" I asked in a bored tone.

The nurse pursed her lips. "Yes, you may." She responded, looking me over. "But you might also want to get some clothes."

I hung my head in shame. "Yes, ma'am." I mumbled. The nurse didn't respond, she only shook her head and disappeared into another room. I sighed and made my way back to the room I shared with the Luna girl.

Once I reached the room, I knocked on the door, afraid of opening it without permission. "Can I come in yet?" I called. I heard a loud sigh from inside.

"Yes, you may, but I'm leaving." Footsteps echoed in the room and stopped before Luna opened the door, now in normal clothes, the Umbreon still on her head. She glared at me in annoyance. "You may enter, now please allow me to get out of here." She pushed past me, slinging a backpack over her shoulder, and stormed down the hall. I frowned. What was her problem? ...Whatever, it didn't concern me.

After getting dressed and showering, I packed up my bag and got ready to leave. No way was I going to stick around this place for another day. Samantha might recognize me; Kimi might come after me, and worst of all I might end up seeing Falkner. I glanced at Gigi's Pokéball, decided against letting her out where she could cause potential damage, and left the room.

After giving my keycard back to the person in charge of renting rooms, I headed out once more. I got out of the city as fast as I could and got back onto the trails. As I walked through the forest, my nervousness slowly subsided. Now that I was finally past Violet City, my journey could really begin. I smiled at the thought and opened my Pokégear. The next place I'd have to go would be Azalea Town. Unfortunately, I had to go through Union Cave to do so, but I'd cross that bridge when I came to it. Or rather, cave, because it wouldn't really be a problem if it was a bridge.

I didn't bother going to the Ruins of Alph this time, but as I passed the entrance to the sight, I remembered that I once again needed to name a Pokémon. My last attempt in naming something was adequate at best, so I really wasn't looking forward to this. But a Smeargle is a paint Pokémon, so it couldn't be that hard…either way, I could decide it later. Right now I needed to focus on getting to Union Cave before dark. It shouldn't be more than a two hour walk, but apparently my sense of direction sucks, so I should probably hurry up.

As I walked- or limped, as my ankle was starting to become sore again- I thought about my immediate future. I'd go through Union Cave, and spend some time in Azalea Town…then I'd challenge Bugsy. I frowned when I thought about my Pokémon. A resting Smeargle and an Igglybuff. Not much to work with…which reminded me, the pink devil would probably freak out if I didn't release her from the Pokéball prison soon. I pulled Gigi's Pokéball from my bag and let her out.

Five minutes and three bruises later, she sat on my head, happily downing a cookie. I frowned up at her, and she spit a chocolate chip at my face. With a resigned sigh, I turned my gaze forward and continued walking south down Route 32 to Union Cave. It was pretty uneventful for the first half hour, so I just looked around at the scenery. It was basically a trail through the forest, with a few hills dotted around the area. Not especially beautiful, but I guess it was better than nothing.

I noticed a kid up ahead, standing on the trail and looking around in boredom. He seemed to be about eleven years old, maybe a bit younger. He didn't seem to pose a threat, so I just ignored him. That is, until I tried to walk past him.

"I challenge you to a battle!" He exclaimed, whipping out a Pokéball and holding it up.

"A battle? Um…no thanks, kid, I just want to get to Union Cave." I continued walking, but he grabbed my collar and yanked me backwards. I swore under my breath as my bad ankle slammed into the ground, and of course Gigi had to use her claws to hold onto my head.

"Yes, I want to battle someone!" He exclaimed, letting out the Pokémon. It was a Sentret. "Go, Stripe! Let's cream this guy!"

"I'm sorry, you're mistaken, I'm just a passing traveler." I once again tried to ignore him, but he pointed to Gigi on my head.

"No, you're a Trainer. So c'mon, let's do this!" He demanded. I rolled my eyes. "Sentret, use tackle!"

"Dude, what the hell, no." I said. What's wrong with him? I said I didn't want to battle!

"Sen-sentret!" His Pokémon squeaked. Then it leaped off the ground and slammed into Gigi. I cried out in shock as she fell off my head and onto the ground. The Sentret remained on my head, proud of it's accomplishment, until I pushed it off.

"Hey, interference! You're not allowed to attack the Pokémon yourself." The boy protested. I growled at him and picked Gigi up.

"Stop being stupid. I didn't ask for a battle, and I don't want one. Now get out of my sight." I carried Gigi away from him, but he caught up. He stood in front of me, grinning.

"If you battle me and win, I'll give you $30!" He offered. I perked up at the thought of money. What Falkner had given me wouldn't last long if I had constantly rent rooms at Centers. And I _would_ have to do that- with this new…disguise, no one knew me, and obviously wouldn't let me into their homes. I glanced at Gigi, who just looked at me as if to say, _What the heck is that face for? Are you constipated or something? Stop being stupid and make a decision!_

I sighed, and glared at the boy. "Fine." I growled tiredly. "One-on-one, your fat mouse thing against my Igglybuff."

"It's a Sentret, not a fat mouse!" He wailed. Then he shook his head and grinned excitedly. "But okay! Sentret, use tackle again!"

I took a deep breath and set Gigi on the ground. This was my first Pokémon battle…ever. How was I supposed to do this? "Um…Gigi, use pound." I said nervously. She gave me a bored look and used the attack on my leg. "Ouch!" I cried. "Not on me, on the Sentret! …Please!" I fell over, clutching my leg. She'd hit the good leg, so now I couldn't really move without hurting myself.

I swear I saw Gigi roll her eyes before she lunged at the Sentret and, side stepping it's tackle, used the attack I'd requested. The Sentret cried out as it was knocked back a good three feet, and I couldn't help but grin. That kid had no idea what he was getting into when he challenged my Igglybuff.

"S-sentret, use…um, use defense curl!" The boy ordered. The Sentret curled itself into a ball, bracing for Gigi's next attack. I stood up and glanced at my Igglybuff.

"Gigi, use pound again," I said. She gave a scowl until I said, "I'll give you a cookie if you beat this fat mouse up."

Apparently my incentive worked well, because she charged forward and used pound repeatedly, leaving the Sentret no chance to recover and attack. Within moments, it was having a hard time holding it's head up.

My opponent gritted his teeth and glared at me. "Alright…you want to play hardball, we'll play hardball!" He nodded to his Sentret. "Use fury swipes!"

I flinched and looked away as the Sentret attacked Gigi, looking like it was trying to claw her eyes out. "Igglybuff!" She cried out, backing up to avoid being hit even more. She looked pretty beat up, and I knew I'd have to something about it soon. Gigi glared at me, clearly blaming me for her predicament.

I paid her no attention. For once in my life, the gears were turning my head. I closed my eyes and concentrated, trying to remember what moves the Pokédex had listed the night I got Gigi. _Pound, sweet kiss, sing, charm, copycat…copycat! Does she know that move?_

I grinned. "Gigi, can you use copycat?" I asked. She frowned at me, then looked Sentret and raced forward. She looked like she was concentrating for a moment, and then her stubs of hands started to glow. Shining claws protruded from them, and she used fury swipes on the Sentret. "Yes!" I cried as the Sentret fell to the ground, knocked out.

The boy stared at his unconscious Pokémon in shock. "How…no! I trained so hard, how did I lose?" He complained, returning the Sentret. He walked over to me and sighed. "A deal's a deal, and I never break my promises." He handed me a handful of bills and change and took off, presumably to the nearest Pokémon Center to get his Sentret healed.

I smiled and reached down to pick up Gigi. "You sure made quick work of the battle," I commented as the false claws disappeared. She only narrowed her eyes. "Oh, right." I replied, pulling a cookie out of my pocket and handing it to her.

While she stuffed her face with the cookie, I sprayed a potion on her wounds- lucky they were only minor scratches, and she'd be healed by the next day. But Gigi did not appreciate the stinging sensation it brought, and she shrieked in pain the entire time. She didn't try to slap me though; she was too busy eating the cookie.

When Gigi was once again on my head and I was continuing towards Union Cave, I pulled out the wad of bills and counted them as I walked. $29.99 in all. I rolled my eyes. It figures- my first Pokémon battle, and my opponent is an elementary school troll. I really should've seen that one coming.


	8. Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven

"Zubats, Zubats, go away, do _not_ come back another day!" My feet pounded on the stone floor of Union Cave as I raced through the dark tunnels, being chased by a swarm of Zubat. My first trip away from home was really shaping up to be a great trip. Oh yeah, I got to be threatened by two girls, beaten up multiple times, even fake my own death. It just spells fun! F, for '**F**rick, I hate my life.' U, for '**U** don't want to be me.' And N, for '**N**ever try to tell me your sibling is mean.'

A horrible noise from the cloud of blue bats hammered on my eardrum. I winced and plugged my ears, going so far as to shove Gigi into my bag. Being a small Pokémon, she would probably be more affected than I was. She let out a cry of protest at being stuffed into the bag, and it made me wonder if she'd rather listen to the Zubats' screaming. "Shut up, stupid bats! Damn, can you get any more annoying?" I shouted, charging forwards as fast as I could.

Apparently the dumb flying rats thought I was challenging them, because they shrieked again- except this time it wasn't just a few of them crying, it was every single freaking one, and it was a screech attack. "Arceus, that wasn't necessary!" I groaned, hands still clamped against my head. A Zubat swooped down and hissed in my face, baring some scary as crap fangs. With a shriek, I struck out and swatted the thing away from my face area. I really didn't have the kind of money for plastic surgery right now, and I'm not exactly photogenic as it is. Besides, I'd rather not land myself in a hospital again.

"Iggy?" Gigi poked her head out of my bag tentatively. She looked at me with wide, worried eyes, but I hardly paid attention. These Zubat really wanted to kill me!

"Gigi, get inside the bag." I muttered, zipping her in but leaving an opening for fresh air. She glared at me through the tiny hole, and I swung the brown leather bag onto my shoulder to escape her scrutinizing look.

Now that I look back on it, maybe I should've just ignored that Golbat instead of throwing a rock at it. I wouldn't have an angry mob of underling Zubat following me through this dark musty hole. Union Cave, ha! Unifying what? Me and death? Because I'm probably going to have my life force drained if I stop running. I don't think there's been a day since I left Newbark Town that I haven't run somewhere, if you exclude when I was knocked out.

Purple wings slapped me in the face as I stumbled onwards, cursing under my breath. Sweat dripped down my face, and my breathing was ragged. Each time I inhaled, a sharp pain shot through my chest. I was in serious danger of passing out from exhaustion again, and this time no one was going to find and help me. Zubats would slowly eat away at my body and strip me of flesh, leaving only bones for an unceremonious resting place in the depths of a mediocre cave.

I zigzagged past large, pointed stones that jutted out from the ground at strange angles. Those things looked deadly, like something a caveman would use to bludgeon a Mammoswine to death with. But swerving around them was hard when I was trying to run full speed, and I had the pleasure of meeting one face first. The only luck I had was not hitting the pointed end.

I didn't even bother to scream profanity at the top of my lungs; I just gritted my teeth and pushed past it, holding my now bleeding nose. There would be time to cry about it later, when I wasn't on the run from wild Pokémon. I heard Gigi growl in protest as the bag swung back and forth in momentum.

A Zubat broke apart from the rest of the group and dove towards me, shrieking in a high pitched voice. The rest of them soon followed suit, creating a chorus of screeches that a banshee would admire. I started to run faster, ignoring the burning sensation in my legs and sides. However, the Zubat caught up and kept a good pace with me. It was impossible! How could these things not be tired by now? They'd been flying as long as I'd been running, which was for the past ten minutes.

In a burst of speed, the Zubat zoomed at me, and I ducked to escape being smacked in the face by it's wings again. I dropped my hand from my bleeding nose and attempted to shoo it away, but that only seemed to enrage the blue bat. It let out yet another screech and reared back, before darting forward again.

And latching onto my neck.

Time seemed to freeze as the Zubat sunk it's fangs into my neck. I looked down at it, my hands shaking. Panic was rising at an alarming rate in my chest, and I felt blood start to drip down from the puncture holes. It hurt like hell, and compared to this, my collision with the rock seemed like a Butterfree kiss. I made a move to remove the Zubat from my neck, but it beat me to it. The Zubat ripped it's teeth out of my skin and flew off, hissing. The other Zubat fell silent and quickly dispersed. It was pretty obvious what they were saying- that I was no longer a threat. In other words, I was going to freaking die.

I brought a hand to my neck and let out a strangled cry, trying to ignore the throbbing pain and find some way to stop blood from leaking out of me. But within seconds, my hand was covered in the red liquid. This was one of those times where you really hoped that something was food coloring, except I didn't have the benefit of the doubt. Instead, I had two holes in my trachea!

Well, maybe not. From what I could tell, the injury wasn't too deep. I took a breath to test, and also because I was starting to become lightheaded. I felt a slight gurgle in my throat, and decided that I best be getting a Band-Aid ASAP. Trying to keep my breathing reasonable, I sunk to the ground and tore open my bag. Gigi tumbled out, looking furious, but she immediately tensed at the sight of blood. My hand was still against my throat, and blood was starting to seep through my fingers. I tossed the bag away. Forget bandages, I needed a hospital!

I groaned and clutched my hand against the wound, praying for the blood stop. It kind of did, but not by much. It may have been my imagination. Gigi started to cry, for whatever reason she seemed to think that it would help, and I flinched. The noise hurt my ears, and though it was loud the thought still scared me. I whimpered as darkness seemed to press in on all sides. Either the damn Zubats had broken my hearing, or I was on the verge of passing out. Low and behold, it was…wait for it-

Door number two.

"What the hell is that light…?" I mumbled, shielding my eyes. "Mom, close the shades…I don't want to wake up."

"Too bad, stop being lazy. I have a habit of waking you, apparently." A voice startled me out of my half-sleeping haze. I blinked my eyes open and hissed when sunlight assaulted my retinas. Lifting myself in a sitting position, I took in my surroundings. I was…in the middle of a trail?

"You're lucky I found you, that bite could've been bad without treatment. How'd you manage to get yourself attacked, anyways?" I swiveled my head towards the voice, realizing for the first time that a huge piece of gauze constricted my neck. The person talking was…oh no. It was Luna.

"How the hell did you find me?!" I shrieked, backing up. Luna rolled her eyes.

"They're called eyes. You know, the things that let you see? You're welcome, by the way. I could've left you to die."

I stared at her for a moment. "Th-thank you…? I, um…why'd you run off this morning?" I asked tiredly, scratching at the gauze bandage.

"Stop touching that, you'll make it bleed again. And you were asleep all night, so technically I ran off yesterday. I have better things to do than take care of your sorry butt, so stop complaining and be grateful." Luna snapped, taking care to ignore my actual question. "I dragged you out of that Arceus-forsaken cave and all the way here." I took a better look at the scenery. I was on a dirt path, yes, and trees were bordering the edges of the road. A few paces to my right was a huge old well, and a group of Slowpoke were lying around it. Slowpoke…I must be near Azalea Town.

"How'd you manage that?" I wondered aloud. My voice was hoarse, but there was no longer a gurgle.

Luna snorted. "I'm stronger than I look. By the way, I heard you scream like a little girl. That's how I found you- that and the wailing Igglybuff. And honestly, you must've been being such a drama queen. The Zubat hardly broke the skin. The only reason it was bad was because it hit a vein, and that healed soon enough."

"How'd you know it was a Zubat? Did you send them after me?" I accused.

"Yes, it was all part of my master plan. Reynolds, what else in that cave could've done something like that? Besides, I do recall hearing an unusual amount of Zubat shrieking."

"How do you know my last name?" I responded, ignoring her sarcasm.

"It's called an ID card, stupid." She held up the fake ID Falkner had left for me. "I have to say, for a seventeen year old, you're a wimp." She studied me. "And you have a baby face. Anyways, if you lived in Nimbasa City, why did you come here? And why do you only have an Igglybuff and a Smeargle as companions?"

I blinked at her, one thought connecting to another in my mind. "Oh crap, Gigi! Is she- where'd you put her?"

Luna sighed. "Calm down, I put the Igglybuff back in her Pokéball. She tried to murder me when I found you and I had to restrain her. You need a leash or something for that thing."

I stiffened. "Okay, one: It will not be pretty when she comes out of that Pokéball. And two, no way am I leashing my Igglybuff!"

"Just shut up and let your neck heal."

Once Luna had packed her things and scolded me about moving my neck too much, we set off for Azalea Town. I kept a running list in my mind of things to do: Challenge Bugsy, name the Smeargle, rent a room at the Center…and now I was pretty sure that Luna and I had come to a silent agreement- travel together. Great. How was I supposed to keep the secret identity thing from her? And then there was Team Rocket to contend with. Maybe I wasn't careful enough back at their base. Had I really seen the last of them?


	9. Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight

"Luna, can I ask why we're in some old man's cottage?"

"No, you can't. Stop talking and give your neck a break from moving, dear Arceus! You're going to reopen the wound."

"I don't like you; you're being mean to me."

"Good, you deserve it."

I scowled at Luna and tugged at the uncomfortable bandage encasing my throat, gazing around the rustic room. I knew I shouldn't be talking or moving too much, but other than I slight soreness I felt fine already. Which was strange, because when I first got bitten I felt like I was dying.

Once we'd reached Azalea Town, the first thing we did was take our Pokémon to the Pokémon Center and get lunch, albeit mostly because I wouldn't stop complaining about the lack of food. Then Luna had dragged me to this strange house at the edge of town. She talked to the owner of the house for a few minutes, and then gave him some fruits that I vaguely recognized as Apricorns. I thought she was doing charity or something, but to my surprise he went into another room and Luna sat down in a chair to wait for him.

After a few more minutes, the man returned with the Apricorns- but they were different now. They had been hollowed out, and looked kind of like…Pokéballs?

Luna took the hollow Apricorns from him and smiled. "Thanks, Kurt." She said, handing him a few bills.

"Anytime, Luna. Tell me if you need anything else." The man responded with a smile.

"See you next time," She replied politely. "Alright, Tweedle-dum, let's go." Luna grabbed my hand and dragged me from the cottage. I winced when the sunlight hit my eyes.

"Agh! The sun…it burns my eyes! I'm going blind! Luna, help me…" I sunk to the ground, clawing at Luna's leg. She shook me off with a scowl.

"Quit it, Jack. What are you, a vampire? The Zubat did not turn you into a creature of the night, so cut the crap. I thought you had a gym to challenge."

I jumped to my feet. "Oh yeah, you're right! Thanks." I said giddily, pulling Gigi's Pokéball from my pocket.

"No, thank _you_ for getting out of my hair. But shouldn't you get another Pokémon before going up against a gym leader?" Luna questioned.

I grinned. "Nah, it's just a couple of bugs. Gigi can take them. If it were a better gym, it'd be a different story…but I think we'll manage."

"Um…right. How'd you beat Falkner with that puffball, then? Flying types would be hard to go up against with only a normal type"

I stiffened at the mention of Falkner's name. Emotions bubbled up inside me, bringing an onslaught of recent memories that I'd been trying hard to forget. "He…uh, I guess the rumors about him losing his touch are true." I said, in a voice that seemed to belong to someone else. I felt far away, lost in thought.

"Guess so, if you managed to win. So, any thoughts on the battle? Like, what's your tactic going to be? Unless you're just going to wing it." Luna fired questions at me, but I just replied with an offhand mumble. The prospect of challenging Bugsy wasn't too intimidating- but Luna's prompt about Falkner had made me completely lose my confidence. If I could beat all the other gym leaders, Falkner would seem like a pesky mosquito that needed to be swatted away. But what if I couldn't beat the others? Or what if my family still hated me, even if Falkner confessed what he'd made me do?

"Earth to Jack! We're at the gym." Luna's voice cut through my thoughts, and I blinked, coming to a halt in front of the building. "You almost walked into the wall, dude." She said, seeming faintly amused.

"Yeah," I mumbled, clutching Gigi's Pokéball tightly. "Well, I'm gonna head in…where should we meet up after I'm finished here?"

Luna tilted her head. "Hmm…well, it'll probably be close to dinnertime then, and I'm going shopping while you're in there. So let's meet in the Pokémon Center, kay? I'll foot the bill for the room, but only because your neck is hurt." She looked me over. "But it isn't very convincing when you're about to battle a gym leader."

I slowly returned to normal and shrugged. "I'm not trying to convince anyone; but I'll take the free board." Luna scowled at me.

"Dang it. Whatever, I'll see you in a few hours. Good luck!" She took off, darting between the cabin-like houses towards the Pokémart. I turned back to the gym, and walked inside the doors.

As soon as I stepped in, I knew I'd made a mistake. "Frick." I grumbled, looking at the death trap before me. The walkway leading up to the gym leader's pedestal was composed of platforms and tightropes. It looked like a cross between the circus and a giant game board. "This must've caused so many lawsuits…" I sighed, taking a tentative step onto one of the strings. It wobbled dangerously beneath me, and I took one look at the abyss below before jumping back onto the normal floor.

"Okay, nope." I laughed nervously. "Not happening." My eyes scanned the gym for a way around the ropes.

"A tall guy like you shouldn't be scared of heights." Once again, a voice jolted me out of my thoughts.

"Gah!" I jumped, and whirled around to see a young boy with a bug catcher's net slung over his shoulder. He had shaggy purple hair and wore a costume fit for a safari. "Err…who are you?" I asked.

The boy raised an eyebrow. "You should know that if you're coming here."

"Right. Can you just tell me where Bugsy is?"

"You're looking at him."

I gaped at him. He had to be about ten years old! The gym leader was that young? And I thought that Falkner was prestigious for his age. "You're Bugsy? Oh…well, I'm Jar- Jack. Jack Reynolds. I guess I should challenge you to a battle, huh?"

Bugsy grinned. "Well, yeah, if you want the Hive Badge." He stepped onto one of the ropes and easily walked over it to the arena that was set up on the other side.

"Uh…do you expect me to walk on that thing? Because it's not happening." I faced Bugsy, who was now standing on one side of the battle ring, across the ropes.

He turned towards me and chuckled. "There's a walkway with a railing to your left, if you're really that scared." I followed his gaze and spotted the thing in question. I gratefully walked across it, not risking another glance at the pit below the ropes.

Once I'd stationed myself in front of Bugsy, I held Gigi's Pokéball ready and waited for Bugsy to begin the battle.

He picked his first Pokémon as well, and grinned. "Ready?" I nodded. "Alright. Go, Kakuna!"

"Gigi, come out!" I tossed her Pokéball and prayed that she was in a good mood. She gave me a furious glare, but paused when she noticed the Kakuna. Then she turned back to me and gave me a look that promised pain in the near future. For now, though, she appeared to be waiting impatiently for a signal to battle.

"Gigi, use pound." I ordered, slightly hesitating. I really hated the idea of battling with her still- demanding things of her hadn't exactly worked out well in the past.

Gigi didn't seem to care at the moment, though, and she raced forward. As she neared Bugsy's Kakuna, she drew her arm back to use the attack.

"Kakuna, harden!" Bugsy said quickly. The bug Pokémon flashed silver as Gigi's fist made contact with it. My Igglybuff shrieked in pain, jumping backwards. The Kakuna was hardly fazed.

"This may take a while," I mumbled. If I recalled correctly, Kakuna couldn't use any attacks except harden, because they were technically dormant inside the cocoon. So it couldn't fight back- but Gigi's pound wouldn't have an effect unless she used it when it was off guard, because it would counter with harden.

"Gigi, use pound again." She tried again, but the situation was repeated. Kakuna used harden, and Gigi hurt her hand. I frowned, thinking hard. Obviously this is why Bugsy was a gym leader- he knew how to use the skills of even weak Pokémon to his advantage. That's what makes leaders such good trainers. But while I had to praise him for that, it was bad news for me.

"Use charm, then pound again." I tried. Gigi nodded and performed the first attack, before going in to use pound.

Bugsy smirked. "Kakuna, use harden again." We both watched as Kakuna attempted to use the move, but it failed because of the lowering of it's attack power. I grinned, but my spirits were crushed again when I realized that Gigi was once again cradling her hand. Kakuna's harden was a lot less strong than before, and we inflicted some good damage, but at this rate Gigi would be in too much pain to attack before long. I gritted my teeth and told Gigi to pause, while I went over battle plans in my head.

My purple haired opponent looked up at me with a triumphant gleam in his eyes. "I can tell that you know this battle was over before it started. Ready to give up yet?"

I blinked rapidly, images flashing in front of my eyes. I felt myself receding into darkness, and the world seemed to fade away. Even the itchy cast encasing my throat seemed to dissipate in the face of this surreal place I was in. I knew that I was just thinking too hard, yet it didn't stop me from panicking. I felt as if I was in my thoughts, and I could very well have been. A throbbing pain registered in my skull, and though I couldn't see the outside world, I could feel everything happening clearly. I clutched at my head to stop the pain, but a vision of Falkner entered my mind.

_"Yes, Jared. _Are _you giving up yet? Ha! I always knew I'd win. You were never strong enough to beat any gym leader. You're nothing but a pathetic fool."_ I could practically hear my brother sneering the words. My hands shook. No. I wouldn't give up! If I let myself lose this battle, I'd never have the confidence to re-challenge Bugsy. And then Falkner _would_ win. I will never let that happen!

I slowly drew out of the dark, and returned my focus to the battlefield, and clenched fist determinedly. "No, I won't give up!" I growled, more towards Falkner than Bugsy. The boy blinked in surprise. I knew he was only teasing, and probably didn't expect that kind of response, but I couldn't help retaliating fiercely. I really should work on my social skills; I've never been good with people.

"I'll beat you, Bugsy, so you better keep your guard up," I warned. Gigi turned towards me, and for the first time ever, I saw a glimpse of admiration- no, approval- in her eyes.

I let myself descend back into the depths of my mind again. How could I beat a Pokémon that could block nearly every attack? If I had a fire type, the Kakuna's harden wouldn't do very much good, but I was reduced to an Igglybuff and a healing Smeargle. So I would have to improvise…Gigi knew copycat and could replicate a fire attack, but I was pretty sure that Kakuna wouldn't be spitting flames anytime soon. What other attacks did my feisty puffball know? Pound, copycat, sing…sing! I groaned, pulling out of my thinking state. Once again, the move sing would both surprise and irritate me. Why hadn't I thought of this sooner?

"Gigi," I called. Bugsy raised his head, also pulling his attention back to the battle. My Igglybuff turned towards me and squeaked, waiting for commands. "Use sing." I commanded. Bugsy's face immediately took on a comical expression. His eyes bulged and his mouth hung open. I couldn't help but laugh gleefully as I plugged my ears. The game- or battle, for that matter- was back on!

Gigi studied me carefully, as if to judge whether or not I was worthy of ordering her to use the attack. But after a moment she relented, and opened her mouth, beginning to sing. I flinched as some of the musical chords reached my ears, making me drowsy. But most of the sound was blocked out, so it didn't take full effect on me. I saw Bugsy with his hands over his ears as well.

The little bit of music that I did hear, though, was the most beautiful thing I'd ever heard. It was truly a shame that no one could ever hear the whole song- or even part of it, without passing out.

For some reason, I'd closed my eyes tightly. Probably because every time Gigi uses an attack, it's directed at me and my instinct is to surrender. I realized that by now Gigi must've stopped singing, and carefully removed my hands from my head to check. Rather than hearing my Igglybuff's voice, I heard Bugsy cry out.

"Kakuna!" He exclaimed. I blinked my eyes open to see a sleeping Kakuna lying on the battlefield. I smirked at Bugsy's reaction. I guess most people use the fire type strategy instead of sending an Igglybuff to coma-fy his bugs.

I nodded at Gigi. "Finish this with a flurry of pound attacks!" My pink Pokémon smirked as well, and raced towards the Kakuna, apparently overjoyed to be inflicting pain on the Pokémon that had hurt her hand.

Within seconds, it was over. Bugsy jumped in front of his companion and held up a hand. "This round belongs to you. I don't want Kakuna to get hurt." He picked up his beloved Pokémon and set it down by the edge of the ring. "We may as well count my Metapod fainted too, because I know you'll use the same strategy."

"Err, yeah, I guess so."

Bugsy beamed widely. "But don't consider this battle over yet," He said confidently, pulling out another Pokéball. "Because it's only just begun." He released the Pokémon, and in a flash of light, I was sure I was doomed. It was Bugsy's famous Scyther.


	10. Chapter Nine

Chapter Nine

I stared at the huge green bug Pokémon in front of me. This would not end well, I already knew that. For one, it looked like it could chop me to pieces with those razor blades of arms. And besides that, Gigi was starting to look a bit tired, from that melee of pound attacks. I bit my lip and glanced between Bugsy and his Scyther. I'd expected the kid to use a Butterfree or something, not one of the strongest bug Pokémon in the entire region!

"Well? Are you going to make a move?" Bugsy asked impatiently. I realized I'd been standing there, staring like an idiot for at least two minutes now. I shook my head to clear it and nodded.

"Yeah, I am. Sorry." This was, what, the third time in a single battle that I've blanked? Eesh, maybe I have concentration issues. "Gigi, can you use sweet kiss?" I asked her, envisioning the list of moves that the Pokédex had named. She nodded, narrowing her reddish eyes determinedly, before performing the attack.

The Scyther seemed confused and distracted for a moment, but it quickly wore off and my attack had proved nearly worthless. I frowned, and Bugsy called out his first attack with this Pokémon. "Scyther, use slash!"

Before I could warn Gigi to get out of the way, the Scyther darted forward and slashed Gigi across the side, momentum hurling her into the air. She let out of cry of pain and hit the floor hard. She struggled to stand up, but I could tell that she wouldn't give up easily. I'd just have to hope for the best.

Apparently Gigi decided to take matters into her own hands, because she launched herself forward and struck Scyther across the head with a pound attack. I sighed when I realized that it was the only damage inflicting attack she knew. Maybe I could afford a TM if we won this battle.

The Scyther, caught off guard, hissed and side stepped to avoid another hit. I glanced at Gigi worriedly. I knew from reading the Pokédex function in my Pokégear that, being the lowest in their evolution line, Igglybuffs weren't as developed as the others. They couldn't sing as much as the others, or they would lose their voice temporarily. And I didn't think that winning a battle was worth that.

Bugsy shook his head at me while Scyther and Gigi went at each other. "Can't you control your Pokémon, Jack?" He asked haughtily. Despite the tension of winning, I cracked a smile.

"I'd ask the same of you, kid." Bugsy flicked his gaze towards our Pokémon, and his eyes boggled when he realized that the two of them were battling without orders. I chuckled at his expression. From what I've seen in this battle, Bugsy is one of those people who usually predicts everything, and is then surprised when it turns out differently.

Bugsy composed himself and called to his Scyther, "Scyther! Use leer!"

Gigi got in a few attacks while Scyther was distracted, but then backed up as his eye gleamed fiercely. Well, let me tell you, that move really works. It scared the crap out me, even. If looks could kill, Gigi would be dead.

She looked a bit hesitant, but I knew that if I let her back down now, she'd hate me for it. So I commanded to her to use pound, only for her nervousness to make her miss. I cursed quietly and tried to call out another attack. Bugsy beat me to it.

"Scyther, I think it's time we broke out fury cutter. End this!" Welp, we're screwed.

Bugsy's Scyther raced towards Gigi with his blades- I mean arms- extended, and slashed at her repeatedly. I flinched and looked away from the whirl of green and pink, feeling bad. I know I'm turning into a softie, but when I became a Trainer, I didn't realize that my Pokémon would have to suffer so much.

The Scyther finished off the attack with a sharp blow to Gigi's chest, knocking her back. She shrieked and was skidded across the floor, rolling to a stop in front of me. I crouched down and looked at her. "Gigi, are you okay?" I asked in a worried tone. Maybe it was time to let her give up.

Gigi nodded, breathing heavily. "Ig-Iggly." She was covered in scratches, but when I looked at the Scyther I realized that she'd done some decent damage on him as well.

I began thinking again. It was only my second battle, but already I'd challenged a gym leader. Maybe I shouldn't have done that, but now I'd just have to go with it. I thought back to the first battle I'd had, with that annoying kid that had cheated me out of a penny. I wanted the damn penny! Okay, that's getting off topic. How'd I win that battle again? Pound hadn't been very effective, I remember that. What was it?

It clicked, and I jumped back to my feet. This was perfect timing. "Gigi, use copycat and replicate fury cutter!" I said encouragingly. My Igglybuff nodded and picked herself up, before running at Scyther.

Like before, her arms began to glow. When the light dimmed, she bore Scyther arms. I had to struggle to hold in a laugh at the sight. Her body looked much too small to have bladed arms like a Scyther. Gigi wobbled at bit at first, but once she'd gotten used to the weight of her new limbs, she launched herself into the air and pinpointed the Scyther. She landed on him directly and slashed him over and over with the blades.

I heard a noise and turned towards Bugsy, who was clapping. I gave him a confused look, which he returned with a smile. "Impressive," he complimented. "I didn't expect you to turn the tables like that. You'll be a very good Trainer someday." I couldn't help feeling a burst of pride, which was kind of weird because I was like five years older than the kid. "But first, prove your Pokémon's strength to me by winning this battle. Scyther, focus energy!"

Gigi used to the attack again while Scyther was concentrating, but bounced (literally) away once he opened his eyes, zeroed in on her. It was clear that he was now oblivious to everything except his target. I sucked in a deep breath and commanded Gigi to use pound, while at the same time Bugsy shouted, "Use slash!"

The two ran at each other, and crashed together with the attacks. Both of them were pushed back and landed heavily on the floor. It took a moment for my ears to stop ringing from the sound of the impact, but when I did I gasped. The Scyther was struggling up, but Gigi was sprawled on the floor, unconscious.

I held back a frustrated sigh and ran over to her, checking for injuries. Nothing seemed to be threatening; she'd simply exhausted herself. I smiled with relief and returned her to the Pokéball. She'd be safer in there until I got to the Pokémon Center.

"I can't say I'm surprised, Jack, but at least you put up a fight." Bugsy commented. I snorted, tucking Gigi's Pokéball into my pocket for safety.

"Who said the battle was over?" I retrieved the Smeargle's Pokéball from my bag and tossed it.

Bugsy glanced at my new Pokémon. "You managed to catch a Smeargle? Maybe I _am_ underestimating you."

I laughed. "No, this one was in no condition to be on it's own. I took him in to protect him. This is actually my first time battling with him." It was true. At lunch time, I'd taken him from his Pokéball and introduced myself. The Pokémon seemed willing enough to stay a part of my miniscule team, so I'd decided to keep him with me. He even got along well with Gigi, probably better than I did. The only problem was, I still needed a name for him.

"Smeargle?" He looked at me in confusion.

"I need a favor to ask of you, Smeargle. Will you battle for me? Gigi needs to rest, and I'm sure she'd appreciate it if you'd take her place." At the mention of his newfound friend, the Smeargle nodded happily.

Bugsy appeared to be contemplating our discussion. "You're very peculiar, Jack Reynolds. Most boys your age are arrogant men who use Pokémon as tools and expect to win every battle out of pure strength. You seem hesitant to even order your Pokémon around. Why is that?"

My face turned red. I knew this was true; but wasn't going to tell Bugsy that I was afraid of being beaten up! However, it was a bit more than that. I also cared about my Pokémon. Even if Gigi wasn't the ferocious Igglybuff she happened to be, I would still be nice to her. I didn't want her to hate me; being a Trainer isn't just winning battles. It's also trust and friendship. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I actually cared about her and the Smeargle.

"I-I'll tell you after I win this battle!" I said, attempting to get off the topic. I was about to call out an attack, before I realized that I had no idea what moves a Smeargle could use. I could tell that Bugsy was expecting me to make the first move, so I whipped out my Pokégear and used the Pokédex function to add Smeargle, before reading the list of moves. It listed only one. _Sketch_. Well, it's worth a shot.

"Smeargle, use sketch!" I called. What happened next was even weirder than what Gigi does when she uses copycat.

The move was similar to copycat, as I realized when I continued to read the Dex entry. It apparently copied the opponent's most recent move. With a flick of his tail, Smeargle literally painted a Scyther into empty air. At first I thought this to be pointless and wasteful of time, but then the image of the Scyther _moved_. It raced at the real Scyther and raised it's arm to attack.

The real Scyther clawed at the transparent image, but his scythe arm went straight through it, like it was a holographic projection. Scyther stared in shock at his arm, while the image leapt over him and used slash from behind. Then, having served it's purpose, the image disappeared.

The real Scyther, now the only one left, cried out in pain and surprise, and then tumbled to the ground. Bugsy walked up to him and I vaguely heard him telling Scyther that he'd tried his best, but I wasn't paying attention.

My jaw was practically unhinged. Did-did my Smeargle just create a Scyther out of _paint_?!

I heard Bugsy laugh, and my head finally cleared. I closed my mouth and swallowed before thanking the Smeargle and patting him on the head. "Uh- good job, buddy."

"You looked like you were going to have a heart attack. I take it you've never seen the move sketch in action before?" Bugsy asked, still chuckling.

I nodded, still slightly dazed. "Yeah. I mean, no. Err, I never seen that happen before. I didn't even know it was possible." I stared at my Pokémon incredulously. He now seemed to be wearing a proud smirk.

Bugsy returned his Scyther and put the Pokéball in his pocket and nodded. "I mostly research bug Pokémon, but I can tell you that Smeargle is a very rare and very capable Pokémon. It only has one move, but that move is like copycat with zero chance of missing, and the opponent has no chance of inflicting damage on the Smeargle itself. Consider yourself lucky to have it."

I nodded, glancing at my Smeargle. It seemed preoccupied with painting random images in the air. Upon further inspection, I realized that it wasn't paint after all- I didn't know what it was. But it disappeared shortly after being drawn. Strange…

"Well, I'd better get Scyther and Kakuna to the Pokémon Center. Want to come with me? Your Igglybuff looks pretty beat up, and I need to get dinner anyways."

"Dinner?!" I exclaimed, looking out the window. Indeed, the sun was already setting. I'd been in the gym way longer than I'd expected. "Oh, crap! Luna's going to have my head for being late!"

Bugsy laughed, and I could've sworn I heard the Smeargle snicker as well. "Well, you should probably hurry up. You don't want to keep your girlfriend waiting." Again, my face turned bright crimson.

"G-girlfriend? No, it's not like that! Sh-she's just a friend. And she thinks I'm a pervert anyways." That just made Bugsy laugh even harder. For a ten year old, he had a good sense of humor. Unfortunately, his amusement was directed at me.

"Alright, 'friend.' Whatever. " He wheezed. "Let's just go."

Luna almost did have my head once we got there. She was furious, saying she'd been worried, and the gym attendants wouldn't let her in to check if I was there. It took a while for me to calm her down, because I honestly thought she was going to murder me then and there. The whole time, Bugsy and my Smeargle, who'd been content to walk outside his Pokéball, kept sending me smug looks. I didn't have to be a mind reader to know that they were thinking, _Liar, you two totally have a thing going on._

Bugsy and I left our injured Pokémon for the nurses to take care of, and he offered to buy Luna and me a bite to eat. I touched my neck warily at the metaphor. I won't be catching a Zubat anytime soon.

We sat at a table outside the Pokémon Center, waiting for the food we'd ordered. In the meantime, we talked about the battle and our Pokémon. Soon, Bugsy and Luna became engrossed in talk about the incident with the Ariados and the 'Jared Wilson boy.' For obvious reasons I stayed out of this conversation, tapping my foot nervously.

"So, do you really think a bug Pokémon would do something like that?" Luna's eyes were wide, and she leaned forward with her elbows on the table. "I mean, I've never heard of them taking off with a human before, only other Pokémon. Poor kid."

Bugsy seemed to be thinking. "As an expert, I'd say no, but I can't be sure. Pokémon are very unpredictable. Actually, when I first heard the news, I thought maybe it was a hoax. But no one turned up, and now…I'm thinking it could be a cover up for a murder. The killer could have staged it to have an explanation as to why the kid didn't ever return home. I mean, someone could've been really mad at him considering that he stole a Pokémon."

My breath caught. Damn it, why does this kid have to be so smart? He'd probably be able to figure out what really happened if given enough clues to put together. I decided to change the subject.

"Hey guys, look!" The two switched their attention to me, and I gulped, glancing around for an excuse. "Err, Smeargle is drawing something!" I said. We all turned to him, and indeed, he was. But this time it was the disappearing colors in the air. He was using his tail to put real paint on one of the decorative rocks that enclosed the outdoor dining area. After a moment, he stepped back to admire his handiwork, and Luna and I immediately turned into tomatoes with eyes. _J + L_ was written on the rock in bright green paint, accompanied by a heart beneath. Bugsy broke into hysterics.

"Hey, Jack, didn't you say you still needed to name your Smeargle?" He asked, grinning. I nodded, unsure of where he was going with this. Bugsy looked back at the Pokémon in question. "Well, I think I've got one."

"And what would that be?" Luna asked, embarrassment creeping into her voice.

"Romeo."


	11. Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten

"Since you two clearly need money if you're traveling alone, I'm going to give you a little. Oh, and here's the Hive Badge, Jack." Bugsy handed me a pile of bills, as well as the flat circular piece of metal. It looked kind of like a Ledyba, with black dots on the red surface.

"Thanks, Bugsy." I said gratefully. In a single day I'd already become friends with two people. Granted, one of them had saved from a Zubat bite, but still. "I really appreciate it."

Bugsy shrugged. "Have you any idea how much money I get? Every other day someone comes in completely unprepared for my Scyther. And you definitely earned that badge. It was the best battle I've had in a long time."

I smiled and looked up at Gigi. After dinner we'd gotten our Pokémon back, and Gigi was healthy as always. My Smeargle had already taken a liking to the name Romeo, and I figured I might as well call him that. Especially since he'd made googly eyes at Gigi a number of times already. I think my Pokémon is a player…

"Jack, we should probably get a room for the night." Luna commented. I nodded in agreement. It had been an exhausting day. She frowned. "Make that 'rooms,' plural." I heard Bugsy snicker. Great, now I have a Pokémon _and_ a person trying to be matchmaker.

"Yeah, I don't want a repeat of last time." I said, remembering how Luna and I had met. I really didn't want another backpack to the face.

"Well, I'd better get back to gym, so I'll leave you lovebirds be. Good luck with your journey. It was nice to meet you!" Bugsy said, walking away.

"_We aren't in love!_" Luna and I shouted in unison. Bugsy just waved back at us and continued down the street.

Romeo waved his tail in farewell, but Gigi was more concerned about rooting through my bag for cookies. She had become an expert on unzipping my backpack and opening cookie packages, and her record was thirty seconds. She didn't quite beat it this time, but she was delighted to stuff her face with cookies nonetheless.

We rented two rooms and headed upstairs to sleep. It was still early, and the sun hadn't even finished setting, but I decided to drop my stuff off and go for a walk. Luna went to her room, saying she wanted to read a book her brother had sent her. I wonder what kind of book Falkner would send me. Maybe _101 Ways to Die._

I tossed my bag onto the bed after getting Gigi's Pokéball from it in case she got hurt. I knew she wouldn't want to be left in the room without room, and since being healed, she hadn't moved from her spot on my head. I think she considered me her personal transportation machine.

"Romeo, are you coming?" I turned to see my Smeargle painting the walls with his green paint-tipped tail. "Guess not." I walked out of the room and locked the room, hoping that the paint was washable. Gigi seemed happy to be going on an adventure, as she bounced joyfully on my head as I walked out of the building into the crisp fall air. The light from sunset was slowly dimming, so I hurried the pace. I had less than an hour before dark, and I didn't want to be taken away by a Pokémon for real.

I debated going to Ilex Forest, but decided against it. I probably shouldn't go into the woods right before dark. So instead, I headed back towards the Slowpoke Well, where Luna dragged me after I was bitten.

No Slowpoke were lounging around the well right now. I guessed that they must go inside the well or something at nighttime. Gigi seemed cautious at first for some reason, but when nothing happened she calmed down and made squealing noises at the chirping of Kricketot. I spotted a big tree near the well, and leaned against it. For a tree, it was surprisingly comfortable. I put a leg up on the trunk and shoved my hands in pockets, resting blissfully in the silence. Leaves drifted down from the tree and other trees surrounding it, reminding me that it would soon be fall, and then winter. I shivered at the thought of traveling in the cold.

I stayed there a long time, nearly a half hour, just listening to the sounds of the darkening forest, with Gigi falling asleep on my head. It was peaceful. I didn't usually just look and listen; I was always on the move, even at home. I used to hike around the woods, or go to the Ruins nearly every day to keep myself occupied until I got my first Pokémon. It became increasingly harder to be patient in more recent years, and…well, you know what happened next. But know I was happy that I'd done such a stupid thing. I had Gigi and Romeo, and two new human friends as well. I never would've dreamed that I'd make friends this easily before. But I guess the whole fake identity thing was changing my personality as well- in a good way. I'm usually closed off and unfriendly, and quite frankly pretty rude. I only had one good friend- Reid, a boy I grew up with. And he'd left two years ago on his journey. That was when I really started to crack. I stopped being the sweet little boy my parents knew so well, and became a scowling, arrogant jerk. At the time, I hadn't even felt guilty for stealing a Pokémon. Now I don't really feel that bad anyways, but mostly because no one seemed to care that she went missing as well as I did.

A scuffle, and the sound of a curse, brought me out of my thoughts. I opened my eyes and looked around, hearing more sounds. I think the noises were coming from…the well? Abruptly, the noises stopped. Then a few seconds later, a pair of feet broke into a run, and I stepped away from the tree. I had been leaning on the tree, facing away from the well. Now I looked around the side of the tree, towards the well. It had become almost completely dark in the time that I'd been thinking, and it was hard to make out the shape of the stones in the dip in the ground.

I didn't see anything at first, but then I thought I saw something to the right of the right, creeping along the edge of the tree line. Then it disappeared into the trees, and I blinked. Wondering if it had been my imagination, I made a move towards the well, only to hear more noises- twigs snapping. This time the sounds were coming from somewhere behind the tree; behind me.

I whirled around, hearing Gigi cry out in fear. A shadow was racing towards me- no, a person. They were nothing but a black blur in the dark of the evening, and I screamed like a girl at the sight of something coming at me. I stumbled backwards, realizing as it came closer that it was a human. But by the time I came to that brilliant conclusion, they were already tackling me to the ground.

"Hey!" I screeched, feeling myself be slammed roughly into the ground. "Who are you? What do you want? I don't have any money!" Well, that was half true. I'd left all my savings in the room.

The person- I think it was a man- hit me across the face. "Silence!" They shouted. Now I could tell it was a male. Not that it mattered; regardless I was pretty much as good as dead. I reflexively brought my hands up to my face to shield myself from further harm, but the man no longer seemed interested in me. He shoved me to the side and reached for Gigi, who had fallen off my head when I'd be tackled. That was when I noticed the huge red _R_ on his shirt.

"No!" I cried, scrambling to my feet and grabbing the man's leg. I knew now what was happening. This guy didn't care about money or valuables. He wanted my Pokémon.

He hissed and kicked his leg, trying to shake me off. "Quit it, kid! You're not worth my time or effort." I clutched his leg desperately as he grabbed hold of Gigi. If he got up now, he'd take off and I'd never catch him.

"Let her go!" I shouted, holding him down by his foot. I was still on the ground myself; but not for long. I stood up and accidentally let go of his leg. The man started to struggle to his feet, but I tackled him from behind, effectively pushing him back to the ground. Now I had the upper hand, and I made a grab at Gigi, only for the man to push me off and stand up. I stumbled to my feet, panic flaring in my chest as he stooped to pick up Gigi. I ran at him, but he was prepared. He abandoned my Igglybuff and whirled around, ready to face me.

I swung at him, but he ducked to avoid the punch and locked his hands around my neck. I shrieked, but the sound was cut off as he squeezed my throat and slammed me back against the tree. I struggled to get free, clawing at his arms as he held me against the trunk of the oak. A sneer appeared on his lips as my vision began to fade. Every passing second it hurt more and more. I could tell I needed to get air soon, or I would die. Gigi shrieked worriedly, and everything started to dim. It was like the Zubat bite, but this time I couldn't get any oxygen at all. I stopped struggling and closed my eyes.

Suddenly the man shouted in pain, and dropped me. I felt cool air rush into my lungs as a lay weakly on the ground next to the tree. "You little monster!" He was shouting at Gigi. "Using pound on me. I'll show you! Just wait until the boss hears about this…" Vaguely, I heard Gigi wail, and the man scowled. "He's dead…won't be any trouble from that one." He must've picked up Gigi, because I heard her crying slowly fade. I cracked open my eyes in time to see the Team Rocket person disappear into the Slowpoke Well with Gigi.

I whimpered, and held back a scream. My throat hurt, and I was weak all around, but mostly I felt utterly hopeless. Team Rocket had stolen my Igglybuff! Gigi…what would they do to her? Would they torture her, or kill her? Force her to battle for them? I felt a tear trickle down my cheek. Why did I have to be such a weak fool? She was gone and it was all my fault! I should've been able to stop the man, but I couldn't. And now she'd be the one to pay the price.

I took deep breaths and tried not to panic as I stumbled to my feet. I had to save her- but I couldn't on my own. I would need help.

"Luna!" I shouted, my voice hoarse. "Luna, wake up! Help me, please!" I pounded on the door to her room desperately. I heard shouts of complaint from other Trainers in the building that were trying to sleep. It seemed like I was attracting attention from everyone _except_ Luna. "Come on, I know you have a tendency to lock me out, but I really need you to open the door this time!" I pleaded.

"Oh, I'll open up alright!" Someone shouted. A door down the hall was flung open, and someone threw a shoe at my head before slamming the door shut. It hit my temple hard and I cried out, falling to the ground. I still felt like crap from nearly being choked to death. I sat on the floor and cried silently, leaning against the door to Luna's room.

A few moments later, the door disappeared I fell into Luna's room. She stood over me in the doorway, scowling. "What do you want, Jared? It's nine at night, and we have to be on the road early tomorrow if we're going to make it through Ilex Forest by nightfall!" Luna snapped.

"Luna, you have to help me." I begged, grabbing at her ankle in desperation. "Please!" I was sprawled on the ground, half in Luna's room, and half in the hallway. She started to kick me off of her, but stopped when she noticed the tears on my face.

"What happened?" She asked, in a much softer tone. "Did you get yourself hurt again? Jack, you shouldn't be prancing around carelessly-"

"No, it's nothing like that." I said, sitting up and wiping the tears from face. "It's Gigi. She-she's been stolen."

"Stolen?" Luna asked incredulously. "How?"

I glanced around to make sure that everyone had gone back to their rooms. "Team Rocket," I whispered.

Luna gasped. "You're kidding me, right? You can't be serious." She looked really concerned, which I took as a bad sign.

"No." I said sadly. "I-I went for a walk, and someone tackled me and stole Gigi." I touched my neck carefully, and Luna's gaze flicked to my throat. Her eyes widened.

"Jack! Were you…did the person choke you?"

I nodded, and Luna pried my hands away to inspect the marks. "You could've died," She whispered. I looked at my feet. "Your neck is going to be permanently damaged if you keep this up," Luna said, dropping her hands. I only sighed.

She walked over to her bed and nudged her Umbreon, which was curled up on her pillow, asleep. "Wake up, Darky." She mumbled, grabbing her backpack off of the nightstand provided for the room. The Umbreon stretched, slowly waking up. Meanwhile, Luna pulled another Pokéball from her bag and tossed it. A Vulpix came out, and she picked her up. I watched quietly, and Luna turned back to me with her Umbreon, Darky, on her shoulder. My head felt bare without Gigi on it…

"Jack, if you want any chance of getting her back, don't dawdle." Luna chided softly. I nodded and stumbled to my room, Luna trailing behind. When I arrived and unlocked the door, one entire wall was covered in green paint. Luna groaned, but I hardly cared.

"Romeo!" I croaked, grasping my throat. "Where are you?" My Smeargle poked his head out from the closet. I didn't even want to know what he was doing in there. I ran forward and picked him up, grateful that he was still here. Romeo looked around in confusion, searching for Gigi.

"She's not here," I told him quietly, as he settled himself on my shoulder. I crossed the room and picked up my backpack- I doubted I'd need it, but it's always good to be prepared.

Romeo still seemed confused, but I didn't dwell on it. Luna was right- I'd have to hurry. They might be killing Gigi right now! The thought made me panic, and I knocked over a wooden chair in my haste to get out of the room. "Let's go," Luna said. I nodded, and we raced out of the building.

I rushed through the streets of Azalea Town, grateful that the citizens were mostly asleep. Two teenagers running full speed in the middle of the night might raise a few questions if we'd been seen. "So," Luna said, holding tightly to her Vulpix as she ran. "Do you have any clue where the guy went?"

"Yeah," I replied, feeling Romeo cling to my head so he wouldn't fall off. "It's going to sound weird, but…he went into the Slowpoke Well."

"What?" Luna asked, slowing slightly as she glanced at me. "Why would he do that? I can't imagine what Team Rocket would want with Slowpoke Well." Her Umbreon looked at me, sitting calmly on Luna's shoulder despite the fact that she was running as fast as she could.

"I don't know either," I sighed. "But at least I have a lead." She nodded in agreement as we left the town behind.

We reached Slowpoke Well quickly, and I gazed down into the depths of the dark hole. "Creepy," Luna muttered, echoing my thoughts. Romeo sniffed the air and made a sound. I think he smelled Gigi, or something like that. At least it meant we were going in the right direction. I spotted a dangerous-looking ladder leading down into the bottom of the dried well. I glanced at Luna worriedly and stepped onto the first rung. "Careful!" She said, eyeing the rickety ladder nervously.

"I will be," I mumbled, risking a glance downwards. I immediately returned my gaze to my hands and took a deep breath, focusing on moving one rung at a time. It was a really long fall- I couldn't even see the bottom of the well. Part of that might've been the shadows' doing, but still.

Once I was down a little ways, with Romeo clinging to my back, I saw Luna put her Vulpix in her bag and start to climb down after me. Darky still balanced on her head easily. I seemed like a very long time before my feet hit the bottom rung, and I stepped off the ladder. While I waited for Luna to reach the bottom, I looked around. Stone tunnels lead off in multiple directions, yet not a single Slowpoke was in sight. Which brought about another question- how did they get down here in the first place?

Luna landed next to me and her Vulpix popped it's head out of the bag. "You ready?" Luna asked.

I nodded. "Might as well be." I chose a random tunnel and headed into it. At first, we walked through a plain stone hallway that got darker and darker as we continued down it. But after a while, a light shone at the end of the tunnel, and we crept more slowly and quietly. No one had noticed us yet, but what if there were people in the chamber ahead?

Cautiously, we entered the room the light was emitting from. There was no door, so we walked right in, and gasped. It was high tech- filled with equipment and white washed walls. It looked like a normal room in a laboratory, or research facility. Stone had been replaced with metal and tile, and computers lined the walls. My stomach clenched as I gazed around the room. It was void of life for now, but it was clear that this place had been years in the making. No wonder the man who'd taken Gigi had gone here- this was a base.

"Whoa," Luna whispered. "This is…"

"Impressive," I finished, gawking. Now I knew I was in trouble. How many people were here? Surely they wouldn't leave a place like this unattended. There were other rooms leading off from this one. They could hold anything from people to Pokémon to weapons of mass destruction, knowing Team Rocket. I shuddered.

"_Help!_" I heard a vaguely familiar voice cry. Luna and I looked at each other, eyes wide. Team Rocket was capturing people now, too? That's what it sounded like. I listened carefully, and heard the plea again. It was coming from another hallway off to my left. Without waiting for Luna, I took off.

"Wait for me!" She exclaimed, running after me. I was surprised we hadn't alerted anyone that we were here yet, which was what worried me. It seemed almost too quiet- like we had already been spotted, and they were just waiting for our guard to be down.

I ran down the hallway. This one hadn't been left alone, disguised as an ordinary tunnel. This one had metals walls like I'd seen in the previous room, and the base in the woods near Cherrygrove. My backpack swung back and forth, occasionally clanging against the walls as I ran. Romeo clung to my back for dear life as I thundered down the hallway. The cries of help were getting louder, and as I burst into a room I recognized the sound.

Shackled, deprived of his Pokémon, and hunched over in defeat, was none other than my brother Falkner. He looked up hopefully from his spot on the stone and gasped when he saw me. I stuttered to say something, or even move, but it was like I was paralyzed.

His blue hair was dirty and knotted, proving he'd either been beaten up or stuck in this place for a while. But a black eye rather than prominent ribs pointed to the former.

"Leave." He whispered. "They're coming. _Leave!_"

I didn't understand. Did Falkner just put my welfare above his? Luna glanced between us in confusion, but I stayed rooted in place, staring at the man who'd ruined my life.

"Didn't you hear me? I said get out of here!" Falkner was shrieking now. "Hurry up, go! You'll be caught!"

I opened my mouth to say something, but laughter interrupted me, and Falkner's eyes dilated in fear. I turned slowly to see a somewhat familiar man with his hand covering Luna's mouth. "Trying to play hero, child?" He looked me up and down. "You're in no condition to rescue anyone, not even yourself." His eyes lingered on my throat, where finger and bite marks decorated my skin.

Luna struggled to get out of his grasp, her eyes narrowed as she tried to scream at her captor. Her voice was muffled by his hand, and he hit her over head with his free hand. I growled, clenching a fist. "Let her go!" I demanded. The man laughed, and I struggled to remember him. Who was he? The one that took Gigi?

"Are you going to stop me, boy?" He challenged. I rolled up my sleeve, fully prepared to go at him. He sneered. "Good luck, then. I have an entire organization on my side." An entire organization? I paused, unclenching my fist as the realization sunk in. Now I knew why he was so familiar- I'd seen him on TV many times. The man that had captured my brother and was restraining Luna was Giovanni, leader of the evil Team Rocket.

Dear Arceus, I am _totally_ screwed.


	12. Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven

I gaped, my fist swinging uselessly by my side. "You- I- how…what the hell is going on here?!" I exclaimed.

Giovanni laughed. "_That's_ your primary concern? If I were you I'd be begging for mercy." I ignored his taunt. My mind was spinning, and I felt dizzy. First of all, why was my brother imprisoned by Team Rocket? Second, what are they doing in a well? And why did they steal an Igglybuff, of all things?

Luna managed to pry Giovanni's hand away from her mouth. "If you're not too busy, I could use a little help here, Jack!" She snarled, raking her fingernails down his arm.

Giovanni laughed cruelly, grabbing her wrist tightly. "Got a feisty one here, do we? I think you should calm yourself down before you get hurt." He twisted her wrist sharply to the side, and Luna screamed in agony. I heard bones cracking and my eyes widened. Her hand was twisted at an odd angle now, and she held back tears of pain. He broke her wrist!

Falkner struggled at his bindings. "Why the hell can't you listen to me for once, Jared?" He snarled. My eyes widened and I looked to see if Luna had heard him say my real name. I couldn't tell whether or not to be thankful, but she was busy screaming at Giovanni.

"You…you broke my hand! I'll kill you, you bas-" Luna was cut off as Giovanni kicked her in the back of the knee, and she screamed again. I looked at Giovanni, both fearful and furious.

"Stop it!" I shouted. "Leave her alone, she has nothing to do with this!" Actually, I had nothing to do with this either. I was just here for my Igglybuff, and I arrived to the lovely surprise of my airhead brother tied up in a well.

Giovanni dropped Luna, and she crumpled to the ground, sobbing as she cradled her mangled hand. I remembered how it felt when I'd sprained my ankle, and multiplied that by ten. That was probably the amount of pain Luna was in right now, and she didn't have the gift of unconsciousness to block it out. Although, from the looks of it, she would pretty quick.

Giovanni stepped over her shaking form and approached me. I backed up a bit, cautious of the clearly insane man. "What gave you the idea to come here, young man?" He asked in a threatening tone. I could tell that he really didn't care, but not answering the question promised severe consequences.

"One of your grunts st-stole my I-Igglybuff, sir." I responded in a shaking voice.

"You stupid fool. Of course you put yourself in danger for a Pokémon!" The voice wasn't Giovanni's. It was Falkner's.

Giovanni paid no attention to my brother. "I see. Not the wisest decision," He commented. I decided not to answer. Giovanni glanced at Falkner before continuing. "It appears you have connections with my…friend."

Yeah, 'friend.' Okay, buddy. "Yes sir." Luna's eyes were closed. She must've passed out from the pain. "He's my brother." I added the word 'unfortunately' in my head.

Team Rocket's leader seemed to be contemplating something. After a moment he turned to me. "I suppose you are confused as to why he's here?" He asked.

"Uh…yes, it is quite baffling." I mumbled, glaring daggers at Falkner. How did the idiot manage to get himself caught? I highly doubted he would go after his Pokémon if they were stolen. He'd send someone else after them. So why else would Team Rocket go after him?

"It couldn't hurt to tell you, and I don't want you bothering my workers with questions," he said in a pondering tone. Then he looked at me. "This may surprise you, but he was working for me."

I gaped, and looked warily at Falkner. It only took one glance at him to see the guilt in his eyes. Giovanni was telling the truth. I groaned and buried my face in my hands. Of course. Only Falkner would be stupid enough to combine running a gym and working for Team Rocket. "Why do I have to be cursed with the worst brother in the entire universe?" I asked in exasperation.

"My brother is worse," Falkner shot back, sneering like his usual self. I made a move to strike him, but Giovanni grabbed my hand and I froze.

"I don't have time for this nonsense," He scowled. "Let me finish. Your brother is actually in this dungeon because he betrayed me. He isn't as bad as you think."

"I'm pretty sure he is."

"Think what you want, then, I don't care. You see, he was apparently a double agent, working for the police. I had employed him as a scout, to use his influence to make sure that no one found out about our plans. But it appears he's done the exact opposite, as I've received news that someone found out about our base stationed near Cherrygrove City." Giovanni scowled and kicked Falkner in the head, his anger apparently renewed.

I felt like I was hit with a brick, as emotions and thoughts swirled around inside me. "Um." I said. "Not to be rude or anything, but you completely missed the memo on that one. I'm kind of…the person responsible for that."

Giovanni's eyes flared. "What?" He growled. "If you're joking with me, stop it now or I'll make you wish you'd never tried to mess with me!"

"No, I'm serious. I discovered that place like a week and a half ago, and-" I paused. I couldn't tell him that Sammy was involved in this, or he'd hurt her! "And I told the police."

Giovanni was blank for a moment. Then, in a flash, a searing pain erupted in my head as he hit me. I screamed and clutched my skull, the pain putting me on the verge of passing out. I struggled to stay awake, because I knew if I blacked out he'd lock me up and I'd never escape this place. "You-you little twerp!" He snarled. "I thought Falkner was just fearing for his life when he pleaded innocence. Now I know it was you all along!" I felt another stab of pain in my back and cried out, not knowing which injury to focus on.

I curled on the floor, screeching each time Giovanni kicked me. By the time he was done, I coughed up blood. I felt light headed and numb, and vaguely heard Falkner's voice. "Don't bother with him, boss. He won't be able survive much more than this- besides, we still need him, remember?"

Chains rattled as Falkner was released from his shackles. Footsteps echoed on the stone floor, and the metal door slammed shut, locking Luna and I in. I lifted my head and stared out of the small window in the door, to see a blurry image of Falkner and Giovanni walking away. I groaned in pain and slumped back down and tried to make sense of what just happened.

So, Falkner was working for Giovanni, using his power as a gym leader to persuade people that Team Rocket was nothing to be concerned about. When I found the base near Cherrygrove, Giovanni thought that Falkner had told the police and hunted him down. Then Falkner was imprisoned here, and Luna and I found him…he seemed genuinely concerned for me, but I have no idea why. It gave me an evil kind of joy to know that his misfortune was my fault, and he seemed to think the same back in the visiting room at the Pokémon Center. And…what's this about 'We still need him'? Was Falkner referring to me? It sure sounded like it. I have no idea why Team Rocket would need me for their maniacal plans, but I was sure of one thing.

My brother just sold me out to Team Rocket. I would say that it's unbelievable, but knowing him, it wasn't. And that was the last thing I thought before I passed out.

"Jack," A voice whimpered. "Jack, please wake up." I groaned, the pain returning full-force as I regain consciousness. Luna was loomed over me, holding her broken wrist and looking worried.

"What is it…?" I asked, sitting up and wincing as pins and needles spread through my back.

Luna sighed. "I hope you can guess that…" She said, gazing around the room. I realized for the first time that it wasn't just an average room where Falkner was locked up- it was practically a dungeon. The door was solid metal, and there were no windows, only bricks. Wonderful.

"Unfortunately, yeah, I can…" I sighed, my head throbbing.

"We have to get out of here," She said, fear lacing her voice. "They took our Pokémon, and our backpacks. Who knows what they're doing to them? Gigi and Darky could be dead!" Luna started to panic, and clawed at the ground, trembling.

"Calm down!" I started shaking her head the shoulders, forcing down my own terror. "This won't get us out of there." I released my grip on her, and she took a deep breath.

"I know," Luna whispered. "I'm sorry. It's just…I'm scared, Jack. These kinds of people have no morals. They wouldn't think twice about killing us, or our Pokémon." She buried her face in her hands, and I swallowed. She had a really good point, and it reminded me of Falkner. Seriously, was there no end to how many ways he could betray his brother?

Luna sniffled and I patted her back awkwardly. Okay, bad situation. I can't handle it when girls cry and stuff like that. There's a perfectly good reason why I don't have a girlfriend, and it's not because I'm an antisocial criminal with the attractiveness of a Stunfisk. Okay, maybe that's part of it, but whatever. The point is, I'm the greatest at comforting people.

"We should try to find a way out," I said hollowly, trying to stop her from crying. Luna nodded and composed herself, while I inspected the room again. There didn't seem to be any obvious means of escape, except the door. But it was locked from the outside, so that wouldn't do us any good.

I rose to my feet and kicked the shackles that had held Falkner bitterly. I guess Giovanni hadn't seen as enough of a threat to handcuff us, which was good. It would make getting out of here a whole lot easier. But right now, as crazy as it sounds, I was kind of debating on whether or not I wanted to leave this room. I was pretty hesitant to face the outside world. What was up with Falkner? He's always been insane- I mean, the guy wears stockings with shorts- but this crosses the line. It seems like he's against me, so why did he try to warn me? I closed my eyes tightly, seeing an image of him on his knees, chained to the wall by shackles around his wrists and screaming at me to leave. _"Didn't you hear me? I said get out of here! Hurry up, go! You'll be caught!"_

I shook my head and shuddered, forcing the memory from my mind. Luna was studying the chains at my feet, as if pondering how they could be useful. I paced the room, trying to ignore pain that was steadily increasing in my back and head. This place was obviously carved from the stone of the well, and meant for holding anyone that Team Rocket happened to capture. How could Luna and I get out of here?

I sighed and leaned back against the wall, feeling distraught. I went to put my hands in my pockets, but gasped as something leather grazed my fingers. My Badge case! I must've forgotten to put it back in my bag, and thank Arceus I did.

My fingers fumbled to free it from my pocket, and Luna looked up at me as I flipped it open. The Zephyr and Hive Badges rested neatly on the velvet cushioning. Like I cared about that! I plucked the Zephyr Badge from it's place and snapped the case shut, smirking. Falkner may think he's screwed me over, but he'd actually already given me a way to get out of it.

"What are you doing, Jack?" Luna asked curiously. I put a finger to my lips as a signal to stay quiet, and crept over the door. I traced the doorknob and the metal around it, and found the keyhole. I grinned and jammed the point of the Badge into it. Luna padded over to me, her eyes lighting up with hope.

After twisting it a few times, I heard the lock open. Luna and I looked at each other and beamed. After listening for signs of life, I pushed the door open gently, praying that it wouldn't creak. By some miracle, the hinges remained silent, and I breathed a sigh of relief before slipping quietly out into the hallway.

Luna and I snuck down the hallway as quietly as we could, constantly looking out for any grunts- or worse, the big man himself. I paused at a corner. This wasn't the way we'd come, but that was good. We wouldn't get our Pokémon back by retracing our steps like a couple of cowards. I turned to towards Luna, and she nodded. Quickly, I went around the corner. No going back now.

There was only one room leading off from this miniature hallway, at the very end. I decided that we may as well try it, and sped towards the door. Making sure Luna was still behind me, I tried the knob and was grateful to see that it was unlocked. I opened the door and rushed in. With a gasp, I tried to back out without being noticed, but it was too late. He'd seen me.

Falkner, the only one in the room, laughed. Of course, it had to be him. He was resting comfortably on a red armchair, finely clothed. I almost rolled my eyes. So he'd already returned to the lap of luxury and high ranking? Not too surprising. Falkner was pretty daft, and despite being tortured by the man merely hours before, he'd clearly already forgiven Giovanni. Ironic that I wasn't afforded that kind of trust.

Falkner spread his arms wide, gazing around the room. "Welcome to my domain! I hope you'll enjoy your extended stay." The door slammed shut, separating me from Luna. I whirled around, eyes wide, and pounded on the door. She appeared to be doing the same thing from the other side. I whipped my head back towards Falkner. "How did you do that?"

"It's this amazing new thing called technology, Jared." Falkner motioned towards a button. He stood up and walked over to me. "So you were smart enough to escape? I didn't expect that of such an unintelligent creature."

I snarled at him and raised a hand to smack him, but Falkner stopped me with a laugh. I gave Luna a look and nodded towards the hallway. "Go," I said, hoping she could hear me through the glass. Whether she did or not, she understood what I was implying, and shook her head vigorously. I could see her lips moving, and she was saying something along the lines of _'No, I won't leave you!'_

"No!" I said firmly. "Just get out of here; find your Pokémon or something, I'll be fine." She gave me a hesitant look, before nodding tiredly and speeding away. I turned back to Falkner and scowled.

"Surprised, little brother?" Falkner smirked.

"Not really. This is exactly the kind of thing I'd expect of you."

The smile dropped from his face and he scowled. "Whatever. Your opinion of me doesn't matter. The fact that you're here does." He grabbed my wrist tightly and I cried out in shock.

"Let go of me!" I shouted, struggling to free myself from his grasp. He only squeezed my arm harder, so I gave up before he cut off circulation and I had to amputate my hand.

"This couldn't have worked out more perfectly," He snorted. "You stupid, stupid boy. Playing right into my hands." I blinked. Wait, what?

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"You can't honestly believe I'd make you fake your death for a petty childhood rivalry, do you?" My heart sunk. I didn't know where this was going, but it sounded really bad. Falkner continued talking. "I was getting ready to give you your own Pokémon to persuade you to fake your death anyways, but you stealing one first made the process a whole lot less suspicious and much easier for me."

"Your point being?"

"This whole time, I couldn't have cared less about our disagreements. I was simply doing my job. You see, Giovanni enlisted me about a year ago, and since then I've been working for him as both a scout and…well, something a bit more complicated than field work." He chuckled.

I scowled, twisting my wrist. His grip was uncomfortable. "Why are you telling me this?" I asked. "I thought you Team Rocket idiots were all secretive." It felt strange to be grouping my own brother with the evil organization.

"Because," Falkner said, leaning in close to me. "If we're going to be using you, you have to at least know your purpose to act the part."

I glanced up at Falkner's devious grin, my heart racing. "Use me? For what?"

"Well, Giovanni needed someone to have a connection with another person so they could betray them. And most of his workers had left behind their families when they joined Team Rocket, so I was the obvious choice. Feel obliged that you were chosen to be part of such an important plan." He threw me to the ground roughly, and I shrieked in pain as my head collided with the tile. It was still sensitive from before.

"I-I still don't understand," I whimpered, Falkner looming over me. He grinned brightly and looked me in the eyes.

"Oh, you will Jared. You will very soon."


	13. Chapter Twelve

Chapter Twelve 

I struggled at my bindings uselessly as Falkner lounged on his fancy, comfortable, throne-like chair. He sent me a bored look and rolled his eyes. "You're only going to exhaust yourself, you know. Just quit while you're ahead."

"And how in Arceus's name is this _ahead?_" I snapped bitterly. He was actually right about exhausting myself- I'd woken up from the Zubat bite late this morning, and it was probably like eleven pm by now. "You tied me to a chair! Speaking of which, this thing is uncomfortable. We should switch spots."

"No, I think I'll stay in my deluxe leather recliner. And if I untie you you'll just run off."

"If Giovanni does manage to accomplish taking over the world or whatever, you will be a horrible co-ruler."

"And why is that?" Falkner sighed tiredly.

"You're cruel to your subjects, forcing them to be in pain!"

"You're my subject now? In that case, polish my shoes for me, peasant."

"No! You aren't worthy. Now, give me the leather chair, this wooden one is going to mess up my back!"

"For the final time, you are not getting my chair. So shut up. And apparently I have to stress this because you're an idiot, but Giovanni isn't someone who cares about his underlings."

"Then why are you working for him, dunderhead?"

We bickered like siblings, which was probably the most normal thing that had happened to me all day. Unfortunately, I didn't really have much of an effect, because he was just as spiteful as me, and I was really in no position to argue. Falkner had tied me to a chair with my arms wrapped around the back, and he bound my wrists with duct tape. You'd think that I'd be begging for him to let me go, or at least be worried about what was going to happen to me, but instead I was complaining about the unpleasantness of being strapped to a hard wooden chair.

"This thing is too small for me," I complained. "If you knew I was tall, couldn't you have at least prepared a better chair? The edges are digging into my spine." Maybe Giovanni was right when he said I needed to get my priorities straight.

Falkner groaned. "Is there a single day that goes by when you don't complain about something?" He asked in exasperation.

I shrugged. "Probably not." Falkner's response was an eye roll.

"You aren't worried about what's going to happen to you?"

"Well, of course I am! It's just that today your stupidity has put me and my friend through a lot of crap. Your minions stole our Pokémon, you've slammed both our heads against the floor, someone choked me, and Giovanni broke Luna's hand!"

He scowled. "Exactly how is that my problem?" Falkner questioned.

"Because I'm going to sit here and complain until you do something about it!"

"I'm done with this nonsense." Falkner said, standing up. "Why don't you try asking me a question that doesn't concern my chair? In the past three hours, you've been kidnapped, beaten, and had the biggest shock of your life. But you're focused on getting a more comfortable seat!"

"I thought you said I had to wait and find out what was going to happen to me," I taunted, sticking my tongue out like an idiot.

"Well, right now it doesn't matter since it's inevitable in the long run, and I'm willing to answer almost anything to get you to shut up."

I beamed. "Okay! Here's a question: When can I have your chair?"

"You are not getting it; I thought I made that clear!" Falkner snapped. His rubbed his temples and sighed. "Alright, I'm going to explain to you why you're here, if you promise me you'll stop complaining about your seating arrangements."

I pondered this for a moment, then relented. "Fine. But only because I plan to use this information to blackmail you. Payback time is near!"

"Whatever you say." He growled, sitting back down. "Alright. I already told you that Giovanni needed someone on his side to have a connection with outside people-"

"Yeah, yeah." I said, squirming miserably in the chair. "Now get on with the important stuff already. I know you like to hear yourself talk, but I have better things to do than sit here."

Falkner scowled at me, but decided to ignore my insult. "Well, here's thing. We needed someone to cause a stir in the media. You already did with your Pokémon stealing stunt, and adding on your disappearance really brought your name into the limelight." I wrung my hands while he talked and stretched my fingers as far as I could. I could almost reach my back pocket…

"Anyways, Jared, we needed you to be noticed by the whole region before we could use you for what we wanted. And it worked. People know your name well; you're always on the news nowadays. Being my brother only attracts more attention from news reporters and whatnot. Basically, our plan was to find some way for everyone to feel sorry for you, and be much more willing to…help you out, than if you were just an average kid off the streets. When they found out you were 'dead,' all their hatred completely disappeared and they pitied you. People are stupid sheep, and that's exactly why Team Rocket excels."

"How heart warming, you want people to care about me. Now get to the damn point, oh _'Elegant Master of Flying!'_"

"Okay, fine. I'll just say it- we're ransoming mom and dad, using you."

"Wow, you really _are_ high in the sky!" I groaned. Seriously, could Team Rocket be any stupider?

"It's not as simple as that." Falkner snorted. "We knew that if everyone knew your name, mom and dad would have a lot of pressure on them to make sure you were returned safely- or the whole family would be hated. Can you imagine? The famous Walker, abandoning his son to die?"

"Yes. I can imagine that."

Falkner shrugged and continued his explanation. "Team Rocket needs money, so this is a surefire way of getting sufficient funds. Besides, the police are much too afraid of us to actually try and stop the operation. They'll collect information on our plans and whereabouts, but ultimately it's up to Champion Lance and the other high ranking Trainers of Johto to shut us down. And they haven't succeeded yet."

"Seriously, of all things you could've possibly done to earn money for your Armageddon equipment or whatever, you're ransoming your own brother? Do you not see how this could have a few fall backs?" I snarled.

"Would you rather we robbed a bank?" He inquired sneeringly.

"Hmm, let me think. I'm tied up fifty feet underground and my only friend's hand was broken by your boss. So…_yes, I would definitely like it better if you'd robbed a bank, numb skull!_" I shouted.

"Well, too bad. We've already gotten this far. And besides, you know about larceny pretty well, don't you? People aren't afraid of thieves. They're angered by them. And that's not a particularly hard process to stop, so the police would probably get involved with a robbery, whereas they'll be hiding under their beds for something as dangerous as a kid held at gunpoint."

"Ugh, this is boring. If you're going to use me for getting cash, at least tell me why you stole my Igglybuff and Smeargle. And if you need me alive, why'd Gigi's captor try to kill me?"

Falkner snorted. "You think we cared about that Pokémon? It was only an incentive for you to come after her and walk right into our trap. And then the Smeargle was taken away just so he couldn't help you escape. They're probably in a cage or something for storage. I don't know; that's lower rank work. As for the grunt who stole your precious puffball, he was a grunt who probably thought we only wanted the Igglybuff. He didn't know it was to lure you here- you see, Giovanni doesn't always tell all his employees the full plan. Any other brilliant questions?"

I thought for a moment. "Yeah. Why'd you act so concerned about me when you were tied up?" Falkner was silent for a moment before responding carefully.

"I wasn't ready for you to know I was part of Team Rocket; I didn't even know you were here yet. It came as quiet a shock to me. I was simply calling for help, because Giovanni had locked me in that room, and then you showed up…I couldn't let you know so early, not when you still had a chance at escaping. But if screamed loud enough for you to leave, someone would catch you. Then Giovanni became angry, and let it slip. But it doesn't matter; I trust his judgment. And he did a pretty good job of keeping you from leaving the well."

I wrinkled my nose at him, but didn't bother replying. I was reaching into my back pocket…aha! Got it! I pulled the Zephyr Badge from my jeans pocket, and holding it behind me, attempted to cut the duct tape that bound my wrists together. I held it awkwardly between three fingers and kept missing the tape, but I knew if I could scrape it a few times, I'd be able to free my hands.

"Now that you know everything I'm going to risk telling you…do you honestly still think you're better than me?" Falkner smirked, reaching behind me and plucking the Zephyr Badge from my fingers.

"Yep," I replied, wriggling my hands. I'd managed to cut through a layer before he had noticed the Badge. The duct tape fell off in a coil and I did something I'd been wanting to for very long time. I slapped Falkner across the face.

"Why you-" He grabbed at me, but I stood up quickly, my ankles still tied to the legs of the chair. I hobbled towards the door, hissing as the exertion made my bad foot throb with pain.

Leave to Falkner to be the one who crushed my hopes- or rather, bones. "You're staying right here!" He growled, sitting on my back shoving my face against the floor.

"No way! You're insane; I'm not sticking around this place!" The good thing was that he when tackled me to the ground, the tape around my ankles had come loose, and I managed to rip myself away from the chair. I thrashed beneath him, trying to get up. While he used my face as a mop, I grabbed the Zephyr Badge from where it had clattered to the ground. I struggled to roll over, and slashed the piece of metal across his arm.

Falkner let go of me, shrieking as blood began to well up out of the cut. "Y-you cut my arm!" He exclaimed, gripping his left bicep to stop the blood. Wow, what a _genius_. That statement was just…philosophical.

I leaped to my feet and grabbed the roll of the duct tape from his chair. "Here, why don't I patch it up with this?" I growled, lunging for him.

We crashed into the wall and I held him against it, literally taping him to the wall by his arms and legs. "Release me this instant, Jared!" Falkner demanded as I stepped away from him, proudly inspecting my work.

"What are you going to do, tell daddy? Nah, I won't let you go. I think I'll sit in your chair." I did exactly that, and bounced up and down on it for good measure. Falkner glared at me, not making an attempt to free himself. I stood up and walked towards the door. "See ya, bro!"

"You'll let me go, I know you will. You're bluffing. You'd never actually hurt your own family member- so just make this easier on both of us and let me down from here," Falkner tried.

I started laughing. "Like I'm going to do that. You really _are_ crazy!"

He growled and kicked against the wall with a foot he'd managed to get loose. "Fine, then. I can get out of here easily, and I'll just come after you that way!"

I snorted. "Okay, but remember to put on your straitjacket- it's cold outside." I heard him screaming at me as I ran out of the room and down the hall.

I knew that, within minutes, everyone would know I had escaped the room, with all Falkner's screaming. When I'd walked into Falkner's office, he paged Giovanni and warned him that Luna and I had gotten out, and she hadn't been caught. Which was actually his fault. But I knew now that they really didn't care about Luna- she'd been dragged into this because of me. Where could she have gone to look for the Pokémon? I traced our steps back to the place where we'd been imprisoned, and then chose a different path than we'd taken to get to Falkner.

Sprinting down the hallway, I peeked into every doorway I passed. Surprisingly, none of them held Rocket grunts or other workers. I didn't find Luna, but I didn't find any enemies either. Just like before. It was really starting to freak me out, because I had a feeling that if I was ambushed it would not go over well. I skidded to a stop in front of a door when I heard the sound of a Pokémon cry. It was an Igglybuff!

I entered the room, a bit more carefully than before, and gazed around. There were cages lining the walls, but most of them were empty. I did see a few Pokémon, however- and one was Gigi! I ran towards to her, relief flooding me, and studied the bars that held her captive. The door was locked, but luckily I still had the Zephyr Badge. I snickered as I picked the lock. I bet Falkner was really regretting giving me this thing right now.

"Are you okay, Gigi?" I asked, pulling her out of the cramped cage. She didn't respond, but instead snuggled into my arms gratefully. I held her close and looked around frantically for Romeo and Luna's Umbreon. Nothing. I sighed and was about to leave the room when I heard a whimper.

My eyebrows knitted in confusion as something made a shuffling sound. Was I hearing things? I hoped so, because otherwise there was something else in the room with me. Out of reflex, I looked to Gigi for advice, but she only buried her face in my shirt. I frowned at her. She must've been really scared; usually she wasn't so…timid.

I heard the noise again and slowly inched towards it. As I neared the sound, I realized that there was a closet in the room, obscured from view by stacks of empty cages, and that's where the sounds were coming from. I groaned inwardly, having a feeling that I would soon regret this. I was pretty sure it was a human; at least, that's what it sounded like. Who knows what Team Rocket could be harboring? It was clear that they could be an unpredictable group.

I took a deep breath, grasped the closet handle, and flung the door open like in horror movies. No aliens, no monsters, no serial killers. Instead…Bugsy. He wasn't tied up like Falkner, but tears were streaking down his face. To my surprise, he flung himself at me, nearly crushing Gigi, and held me tightly. I stiffened in shock while he bawled. What was going on here? Why is the Azalea Town gym leader hiding in a closet underground? I can't handle this. No, no, no. I don't like crying…make it stop…

"Jack!" He wailed. "It's you! I thought…I thought you were someone coming to look for me. I…I'm scared. They-they took my Scyther and I ran away from them, but I'm stuck here! Wh-what if they come for me? Help, please!" he sobbed against me. I stood there for a moment, frozen, as Bugsy cried hysterically. It reminded me that he was still a child- as mature and intelligent as he could be, he wasn't old enough to deal with something like this and be able to put on a brave face.

"What…what the hell is going on here?" I wondered aloud, head reeling. Today has got to be at the top of my Weirdest Days list. It was also extremely nerve wracking. I should just have a mental breakdown right here, and spiral into madness. I could live in a delusional world where I eat rainbows and swim in rivers of melted chocolate. Yeah. That sounded like a good alternative to my current situation.

"Team Rocket. They…a bunch of people with red _R_s on their shirts came to the gym, and they took me away to this place, and then they stole Scyther, and-and they tried to lock me up in a room but I ran away from them and I found this place and hid!" Bugsy cried, his whole body shaking.

I sighed and patted his head, hoping that it was comforting. I really am horrible with people. "I'm sorry that happened, Bugsy…" I sighed. "Do you know why they tried to hurt you?"

"N-no. But they weren't grunts, because they wore different outfits. They kept talking about the Jared Wilson person though." Bugsy sniffled and wiped his face clean of tears, stepping back. His eyes were still puffy and red from crying. "And it sounds like they think he's still alive…"

I looked at the boy nervously, then down at Gigi. Should I just come clean, before he figures it out? It might be better in the long run. But he might get really angry or freaked out, and run off and get himself in danger. Then again, we were already in a perilous situation. "Well…Bugsy, Jared is still alive…" I said hesitantly.

He blinked at me curiously. "What makes you say that?" He asked.

Here goes. "Because…I'm Jared."

Bugsy stared at me for a long moment, then slapped me upside the head. "You've gone insane. Snap out of it!"

"No, really." I replied warily, rubbing my head. I was going to have a concussion by the end of the day. With a sigh, I pulled out the brown contacts and showed him my naturally green eyes. Then I pointed to the top of my head, where hair roots were starting to grow in black. "See? If you take away the hair and eye color…which is faked, but whatever. If you do that…you can easily tell who I am."

I watched as the realization hit Bugsy, and his eyes widened. "It was you all along?" He whispered. "You stole a Pokémon and pretended to _die_? And then challenged my gym? But…why?" Bugsy was backing up into the closet.

"It's a long story," I responded tiredly. "Just calm down, and listen. We need to find Luna and get out of here. If they brought you here for the same reason as me, well, it's not going to pretty…tell me, exactly how rich is your family?"

"Y-you're crazy!" He screamed, pushing past me. "Stay away from me!" And in a blur, he charged out the door and disappeared. I groaned and placed Gigi on my head. Great, now I have a ten year old with PTSD to track down, as well as Luna and Romeo. Screw my life.


	14. Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Thirteen

I trudged down the seemingly endless hallways, resisting the urge to smash my head against the wall. I'd been looking for Bugsy for the past ten minutes, and I was really starting to support the use of child leashes. Where could he have possibly gone in such a short time?

I grunted in pain, starting to limp. To tell you to truth, I didn't even know which part of me was hurting. My ankle was still sore from being almost broken, and now my head and back hurt. Never again will I complain about a stubbed toe. But I could rest at the Pokémon Center once I'd gotten Luna and Bugsy out of this place. So I just gritted my teeth and continued on, cursing Bugsy under my breath. Children make everything difficult.

_This place is gigantic_, I thought. _And it really needs a remodel. It's too gloomy and depressing. _It was true. This base was basically composed of dim hallways and side rooms. How original. I stopped in front of one of the doors, and tried looked through the glass window- but it had been covered with a sheet from the inside. I tried the handle, and to my surprise, the door was flung open. A hand shot out and dragged me inside.

"Let me out!" I shrieked as the person closed the door. It was dark inside the room, and my eyes took a moment to adjust

"Shut up or you'll get us caught," A voice growled. I turned to see Luna with her hand over Bugsy's mouth. I felt weak with relief at seeing them both safe, but as soon as Bugsy caught sight of me, his eyes widened and he started thrashing to get out of her grip. Luna rolled her eyes. "Would you quit already?" she snapped, holding him tightly. "_Jared_ isn't going to hurt you." Luna fixed me with a hard glare. "But I might hurt him."

Well, crap. I made a move towards the door, but she let go of Bugsy and blocked my escape. "Oh no. Neither of you are going anywhere until someone explains to me why's he's in a Team Rocket base-" She pointed towards Bugsy. "And why you tricked me into thinking you were someone from Unova!"

"Luna, let me out!" Bugsy begged. "He's crazy; I don't want to be stuck here with him!"

"You'll be fine. Besides, it's more dangerous out there. At least, for you it is. But if I were Jared, I'd be pretty terrified right now."

I gulped. "Luna, before you jump to conclusions-" She slapped me across the face before I could continue.

"Oh, you _will_ explain, Jared. And it better be a damn good explanation. But not before Bugsy does. I don't want to be angry at him because you piss me off with whatever story you conjure up." She hissed.

I sighed. "Alright, whatever." We both turned to Bugsy, who shrunk back like he was being cornered.

"Well, uh, I don't really know. I was just dragged here." He mumbled nervously. "Kidnappers don't usually don't usually say, 'Hey, just so you know, we brought you here to harvest your organs,' or whatever they plan to do."

"Of all things, you use _that_ example?" I exclaimed. Bugsy shrugged.

"Both of you quit it," Luna growled. She grabbed me by the ear and hauled me away from the door.

"Ow, ow, ow, stop it Gigi!" I said out of reflex, and my Igglybuff glared down at me from my head. Then my face flushed and Luna snorted.

"I have a feeling you're used to saying that. Not too surprising, with that crazy Igglybuff of yours." She taunted, yanking me to floor in the middle of the room. "Alright, now that you can't escape without going through me, start talking." We both sat with our legs crossed on the floor, facing each other. Luna glared back at me.

"But I can't- you'll never believe me!"

Luna rolled her eyes. "Please. I've seen some weird things in my day. I'm pretty sure your twisted fake obituary tales won't surprise me. So you have two choices- either tell me, or I will walk out of here and never return."

One look at her serious face told me that she wasn't joking around. So I relented, and began repeating what Falkner told me.

"I don't believe you. That's complete nonsense. No one's brother does that to them." Luna snorted.

"Okay, did you _not_ hear the part about being in Team Rocket? He's freaking evil!" I scowled, trying to keep the anger out of my voice. "I knew you wouldn't believe me."

"You expect me to believe that your brother is _ransoming_ you? And he made you fake your death as part of some master plan?"

I groaned. "I know it sounds ridiculous, but if you knew Falkner you would understand. He's always been crazy."

"Whatever. I'm not going to listen to your lies any longer. Let's just focus on getting out of here." Luna sighed.

I nodded, eager to get off the subject. "I think I'm lost, because I got turned around when I went chasing after Bugsy, but I could try to trace my steps back to where we were."

"Back towards the place they locked us up? But what if there are a lot of people there, waiting for us to come back?" Luna asked fretfully.

"It could happen…but we have to take our chances. Just trust me on this."

"Trust you? How can we trust you, after you lied to us about something as important as who you _are_?" Bugsy demanded.

"Oh, come on!" I protested. "It's not that bad…" I looked around our little group, and decided that trust really _would_ be a key factor. We were exhausted, terrified, and the only one without prominent injuries was too young to watch horror movies. I was becoming increasingly stressed out, and quite frankly a bit fed up. "Look, I know I've done some stupid stuff, but if I'd told you guys who I was, it would have gotten back to Falkner. The man is like a secret agent. And beforehand, I thought he was just a jerk who would ruin my life if I told you. Once I figured out what was really going on, I would've eventually come clean if you hadn't opened your big mouth!" I pointed at Bugsy angrily.

Big mistake. He started crying, which reminded me of what happened the first time Gigi was hungry in my presence. It was horrible, especially because this time it was my fault. "Okay, I'm sorry." I said nervously. "I didn't mean that. Please stop." He just wailed louder, and Luna shot me a dirty look. I swallowed and tried again. "Bugsy, it's okay. You didn't do anything wrong- I'm just being an idiot." Nothing.

I sighed. Really, I doubt he would've done this in a normal situation. From what I've learned about him so far, my guess is he'd just laugh at me and say I was blaming him for my problems. But I guess the tension had made us all worried, and it probably wouldn't take much to put Luna and I into tears, either. "Bugsy, come on!" I pleaded. "You're making too much noise! If Team Rocket finds us, I don't think we'll be able to escape this time. We'll be locked in a room until they decide to do something with us. Is that what you want to happen?"

Bugsy looked at me, sniffling. "You…you think that's going to happen if they catch us?" He whispered.

I nodded vigorously, feeling relieved. Finally I was getting through to him! "Yes, I do. And they might hurt us, or worse, so please be qui-"

"No! I don't want to die!" He started bawling again, and held onto Luna. "I want to go home!"

I sighed and looked over at Luna. "Any time now, Luna. Just jump in." She rolled her eyes.

"You better hope you never have kids," She grumbled. Then she turned to Bugsy, who was pressed up against her, gripping her arm. She smiled at him. "It's alright. Don't listen to Jared; he doesn't know what he's talking about." Luna gave a glare that dared me to argue with her. "We'll be fine. But please don't cry; there's no need to feel sad."

"O-okay," Bugsy sniffed. "I won't cry anymore." Now that he was done crying, a huge yawn escaped his jaws, and he basically fell over onto the floor. Within moments, he was sound asleep. Gigi hopped off of my head and curled up next to him, clearly agreeing with him that it was naptime.

"Dude. How did he do that? I would love to fall asleep that easily," Luna grunted.

"How did _he_ do that? How did _you_ do that is the question! You made it look so easy to calm him down- what witchcraft did you use?" I asked in awe.

Luna laughed. "All I did was comfort him. It's not that hard- I just said optimistic things, instead of telling him that he's going to make Rocket grunts flock to us and put a bullet through his skull."

"So you do agree with me. You were lying for his benefit."

She shook her head. "Not necessarily. I mean, there's a fifty percent chance of us not making it out of this place on our own…if not more, but if you're telling the truth about Falkner, they probably won't kill us. Or at least, not you. And I imagine that's why bug boy is here too."

I shrugged, glancing at Bugsy's sleeping form. "I guess. So what's the plan?"

"I thought you were in charge; you said something about tracing your steps." Luna replied.

"Oh. Okay. Well…in that case, what are we going to do about Bugsy? For one, he's exhausted. So either we have to wake him up or carry him. And if we're spotted and have to run, how will he keep up?"

"I hadn't thought of that," Luna admitted with a frown. "But we can't just leave him here!"

"Well, I'm not implying it!" I scoffed. "It's just that we might have to protect him. Did you get your Pokémon back?"

Luna pulled three Pokéballs from her pocket and handed me one. "That's Romeo. I got Darky and Vulpix back, and Bugsy found his Scyther, but I didn't see our bags anywhere. Luckily I didn't have any Pokémon in mine. Was there anything important in yours?"

Well, most of my money was in there, but nothing irreplaceable. "Nope. Let's just focus on getting out of here. I am _not_ risking my life over a backpack."

"Wise choice," She snorted. Then she nudged Bugsy's shoulder. "Come on, wake up. We have to go."

"I don't like this. I don't like this at all." I said, worry tingeing my voice. We'd made it all the way to the beginning of the well with no problems whatsoever. There hadn't even been anyone guarding the high-tech room we'd seen when we first got here. It was way too easy. Now we were staring up the ladder. Far above us, you could see the fading moon shining down into the well. The first hints of dawn were lighting the sky.

"Me either, but we may as well go while we can." Luna sighed. Bugsy kind of just nodded, his head drooping with tiredness.

I glanced behind us at the tunnel, double checking for any potential enemies. Not a single person appeared, and I turned back to my companions. "You guys can go." I offered. Okay, that's not me being a hero or anything. I just wanted to be on the bottom so I could kick Falkner in the face if he tried to climb up after us.

Bugsy started up first, followed by Luna. Once they were part of the way up, I began climbing. I vaguely heard a strange creaking sound the whole time I was on the ladder- which was not an extended period of time.

Just as Bugsy was hauling himself out of the well, the ladder broke. It freaking broke, and Luna and I crashed downwards. I screamed, Gigi clutching my head. My stomach dropped as we fell further down into the dark well. It was like the tree all over again. Any moment now, I would land on that stone floor…

Suddenly, a bright light beamed out from Luna's pocket, and her Umbreon glided through the air, grabbing us both by our shirts and landing gracefully.

"Oh. My. Arceus." I gasped, breathing hard as the Umbreon held me about an inch away from the ground. "That was _way_ too close. Your Umbreon is like a magician!"

"Uh…yeah." Luna said, trembling. "Darky is really graceful…we'll just leave it at that." Darky dropped us, and we both collapsed tiredly to floor. Gigi was holding onto my head like a lifeline.

"Luna! Jared!" A frightened voice called from above. "Are you okay?" I could faintly see Bugsy leaning over the well, calling down to us.

"Y-yeah. We're fine." I managed to reply.

"I'm going to go get help- stay right there!" He shouted, disappearing from view.

"Where would we go?" Luna wondered, seemingly faintly amused.

I frowned, picking up a section of the ladder that had fallen. "I don't know, but look." I showed Luna the ladder, and it was obvious that the rungs had been loosened. "Sabotage. No wonder they didn't bother to chase us down! I guess they didn't ruin the ladder bad enough for all of us to fall, though."

Luna gazed worriedly at me. "Doesn't that mean they were waiting for us to fall?"

"I don't know. But we may as well make the best of this."

"How?" She laughed, some of her edginess dissipating. "Playing I Spy?"

"Like this." I leaned forward, and before I knew it I was kissing Luna Sprague.


	15. Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fourteen

The first thing that ran through my head was, _what the _hell_ did I just do? She's going to murder me now!_

I can't say that I felt like the universe was crashing down around us or any of that romantic crap, because I leaned back away from Luna within seconds, blushing fiercely. She stared at me in shock. Gigi made a jealous-looking face and voluntarily went into her Pokéball. _Well, that went downhill quickly,_ I thought. I needed an excuse. "Uh…aliens. Yeah, that's it. Body snatching stuff." Brilliant, Jared, really.

"Sure." Luna said, her cheeks tinged pink as well. "We'll call it that. Must be the same for me, because I should be mad at you." She looked down at her broken wrist, wincing in pain. Then she lifted her other hand and punched me in the face. "Guess I'm not possessed by the aliens anymore." She snorted.

"Jeez!" I groaned, rubbing my nose. "Was that necessary?" My whole body is going to be bruised by tomorrow…

She frowned at me. "Yes. One, you assaulted me-"

"Okay, that is _not_ what happened. Don't girls like it when the guy makes the first move?"

"If you'll let me finish." Luna rolled her eyes. "I'm not a normal girl. And also, you lied. Twice. You had that coming for not telling me that you were actually Jared Wilson, and then why you kissed me. Body snatchers, puh-lease! I know you liked it." She teased

"N-no! Not at all. I told you, it was the aliens." I stuttered. Luna snickered.

"Okay. Well, the alien was a good kisser. Maybe I'll kiss him again sometime." New law of the universe: Women work for Satan.

We sat in the bottom of the well for the next fifteen minutes, gazing silently up at the stars. It felt like a lot longer than it really was, because it was the very definition of 'awkward silence.' I kept glancing at Luna, expecting her to punch me again or something, but she remained quiet.

I heard a sound, and suddenly someone was leaning over the well. Luna and I jumped to our feet, grateful to be finally getting out of this hellhole. "Stay calm!" A police officer yelled from above. "We're coming to get you!"

Within moments, about a dozen police officers were surrounding the well, staring down at me and Luna. I gulped at the sight of all the people, hearing shouting from above. When Bugsy said 'help,' he must've meant the entire Johto police force or something…

A rope was lowered down, and I eyed it nervously. If that thing started to look like it was going to break, I would give up. I'd just stay down here and let Team Rocket ransom me, rather than risk falling to the bottom of this well. And I was still concerned as to why they weren't making any attempt to stop us from escaping…

Once they hauled Luna up, I gripped the rope nervously. I clung to it, my knuckles turning white as the rope was raised higher and higher. It felt like an hour before I was safely on solid ground again. I think I must have looked really freaked out from being on that rope, because people kept telling me 'It's okay, you're safe now! They can't hurt you anymore.' Which was bull crap. Even if that's why I was terrified, it would not have comforted me in the slightest. It's Team Rocket; they can do whatever the hell they want.

Dawn was starting to break, and I could hear Pidgey chirping over the din of people rushing around. Police, other officials, and civilians were all trying to see what was going on. I even thought I saw a reporter, and I was quick to establish myself as a traumatized teenager so the news crew would leave me the frick alone.

I found Bugsy and Luna in the crowd, and made my way over to them. "Guys," I said quietly. "I don't think we should mention Falkner if they ask us any questions. I would like nothing better than for him to be locked up like he deserves, but they'll never believe us. They'll think we're pulling a prank, and probably start to wonder if we were even in danger. And I really don't want to be arrested…"

Luna sighed. "I suppose you're right. Besides, this'll blow over quickly if we avoid as much attention from the media as possible."

"Fine, but at least mention that they attempted to steal Pokémon. That way they'll be more likely to investigate and find out about him on their own." Bugsy pointed out. I nodded in agreement.

"Oh. And if anyone says anything about me being almost ransomed…I'll kill you. I have some dignity, you know." I said, crossing my arms.

"Okay, macho man." Luna snickered, nudging my arm. "We won't tell anyone." Bugsy just rolled his eyes and sighed, his aversion to me apparently gone.

"You two are completely oblivious to each other." He shook his head. Luna and I shared a glance, and I cleared my throat before I could start blushing. Not that I would or anything! …Arceus help me if Bugsy ever found out about the kiss.

I was beginning to have the feeling that the three of us were…friends, I guess you could call it? I don't know. The only friend I've ever had before was Reid, and I can hardly remember why we hung out. Regardless, I was happy for the first time in ages. In general, I mean. This exact moment I was becoming increasingly pissed off, because police officers and reporters kept asking questions and talking over one another until I couldn't understand them.

"Why did you go into the well in the first place? Didn't you realize that it could be hazardous, with all those unstable bricks?" A police officer questioned me.

"My Pokémon was stolen, and the captor went down there." I growled.

"When you realized Team Rocket was in the Slowpoke Well, what was your reaction?"

"I don't see how our opinion is relevant to any investigation," Luna replied to the reporter, her lips pursed. I could tell that she was getting overly fed up as well.

"Well, then why don't you tell us how you managed to get back to the ladder? Surely they must have made attempts to restrain you." A gruff-looking officer said.

Bugsy, Luna and I shared a look. A moment passed before Bugsy spoke in place of Luna. "We used our Pokémon to escape," he lied. They would never in a million years believe that Team Rocket would let witnesses escape unhindered. And I was questioning that myself.

"I see," he responded, glancing around. "Let's get you three out of here, before news crew and magazine reporters converge on you." He sighed, shaking his head I had to smile at that one. Finally, someone who agrees!

That night, we were offered two choices: Stay at the police station under witness protection, or remain at Bugsy's guarded gym until it was deemed safe for us to leave. I bet you can figure out which one we chose.

So, after we went to the police station where we were questioned for three hours (after they looked for nonexistent evidence, of course), ate dinner and showered the grime of that dungeon off- yes, I _do_ shower once in a blue moon- we returned to Bugsy's gym. It was around seven pm, and we were completed exhausted from getting hardly any sleep the past two days, so we just decided to be lazy and watch TV. Which is why right now I'm sitting in a sleeping bag on the floor of the 'living room' of the Azalea Town gym, watching a movie marathon on the independent films channel. Weird? Yes. But it was also a good break from the exhaustion of the past 24 hours.

The three of us lay on the floor, intently staring at the screen. "C'mon!" I muttered at the main character. "Just kill the guy already! It's obvious he's the one who murdered your wife."

"Yikes, Jared. Dark." Bugsy commented, also focused on the movie.

"What are you talking about? It's bright in here!" I scoffed.

He rolled his eyes. "For one, that's not what I meant. And two, the lights are off. It's only the TV that's lighting the place up."

"Whatever. I was just saying, I wish that people in the movies weren't so stupid. They let their enemies get away with everything, all because they're afraid of facing them." I snorted. Bugsy and Luna shared a look and started coughing and clearing their throats.

I glared at the two of them. "Oh, shut up." I turned back to the TV, but the movie stopped as the channel switched to commercial. Luna looked away from the screen and turned to me.

"Jared, gimme the popcorn." She said, reaching for my bowl. For some reason, we were both just pretending that this morning's…event had never happened.

"Nuh-uh," I stated simply, moving it away from her hands.

Luna narrowed her eyes. "I _said_, give me the popcorn. Now."

"But it's mine," I complained. "Where did yours go?"

"I ate it. Duh." She took on a scary look. "I will ask you one last time. Please. Give. Me. The. Popcorn."

For a moment, I had an internal debate. Then, I stood up and held the bowl high above my head. "Ha! I'm way too tall for you to reach it. The buttery goodness is mine!" I said smugly.

Luna smirked. "It is, is it? Well, then you're my enemy. I'll conquer you even if you are tall! What is it they say in fairy tales? Oh, that's right: The bigger they are, the harder they fall!" And then she tackled me to ground, sending the popcorn flying.

"Agh!" I screeched as I hit the ground. It didn't hurt, but those few seconds in the air were terrifying. Luna crashed down next to me.

"Ow…okay, I won't be using that strategy ever again." She grunted, glancing at the spilled food. The bowl had landed right-side up though, and there were a few pieces left in it. Her eyes lit up and her hand lashed out, grabbing the bowl.

"Nooo!" I cried as Luna took the last handful and shoved in it her mouth, with a smirk. The second she did so, a loud electrical _pop_ echoed through the building, and the TV went out.

"Holy crap, Luna! You broke the electricity!" I exclaimed, sitting up and glancing outside. Every other building on the street seemed to be fine…

"She did not," Bugsy muttered. "Where's the flashlight?" I heard him shuffling around, looking for said object.

Luna was close enough for me to see her, and I crossed my arms defiantly. "That was Arceus saying he wanted me to have the last of the popcorn." I couldn't be sure in the darkness, but I thought I saw Luna roll her eyes.

"Uh-huh. Because Arceus watches teenagers fight over popcorn in his free time." She snorted. "Just do something productive, like look for the flashlight."

"No need!" Bugsy called. "I found it." He flicked the light on, right in my face.

"My eyes! I'm going to be blind if this keeps up," I hissed, covering my face.

"Sorry," He muttered crossly. Suddenly, another loud noise erupted, and Bugsy dropped the flashlight with a shriek. The light flickered out as it hit the floor, but it didn't matter, because the TV turned back on, fizzing with static.

"What just happened?" Luna asked, plugging her ears. I shrugged, and suddenly the screen flashed. The static disappeared to be replaced by- oh dear Arceus- my brother. He was tied to a chair and looking like utter crap. Once again, the idiot had managed to screw himself over, apparently.

A Team Rocket grunt was standing next to him, a ski mask over his or her face, with a gun pointed at Falkner's head. Luna removed her ears from her head, and the three of us stared at the TV blankly. A low, gruff voice came over the speakers. "If you want your precious fellow gym leader back, the six of you have until tomorrow at midnight to have Champion Lance meet us at Mt. Silver with $100,000 in PokéDollars. If the police show up, he dies." Falkner sent a desperate look at the camera, before the signal cut out and the TV returned to static. A few moments later, it switched back to the movie.

Bugsy, Luna and I took about five seconds to put it together in our brains, before looking at each other and letting out a simultaneous groan. This was Falkner's backup plan- to ransom _himself?_ If was that crazy, why didn't he just do that in the first place? Well, that much was obvious. He hates me. He probably played the outside connection card until it failed, and then went to Giovanni with his 'spur-of-the-moment' Plan B. My brother deserves a really slow clap.

Bugsy was the first one to speak. "'The six of you'…they can't possibly mean us. Why would we believe that after what happened, or help Falkner even if we did?"

"I don't know," Luna mumbled. Then she gasped. "Wait! I got it. 'Fellow gym leader'…that was directed at the gym leaders of Johto, and Lance! This was probably the plan all along, when they were going to use Jared- to contact the gym leaders. Therefore, the police couldn't get involved, and they'd have a good chance to take out Lance while they were at it." She paused. "But they said six, not seven…I guess they'd already hacked into the gyms' television signals, and forgot that the video would still be hooked up to Bugsy's gym after they kidnapped him."

I nodded in agreement, and Bugsy started laughing. "That's too good," he giggled. "'If the police show up, he dies.' What is this, a cop movie?" I snickered. It _was_ pretty corny.

Luna frowned at the two of us. "You know, even if Falkner's not in danger, the other leaders are probably freaking out right now. And they told Lance to meet them in a remote, dangerous place. He probably believes Team Rocket, so he might go to save Falkner. What if they hurt him?"

"Luna," I said, composing myself. "Are we talking about the same Lance? Because I'm pretty sure that he can take care of himself. He's the Champion."

She shrugged. "I'm just thinking out loud."

Bugsy yawned. "Let's not talk about Jared's stupid brother. It's a waste of air."

"Exactly," I said with a grin. "Let's finish watching the movie." Merely minutes after seeing my own brother taken 'hostage' by Team Rocket on live television, I was comfortably ignoring his existence while I watched an adventure movie.

Yeah, my life is weird.


	16. Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Fifteen

"Bye! Come back soon!" Bugsy was waving goodbye as Luna and I headed out of town, into Ilex Forest. Gigi was happily on my head again, and I bet you can guess what she was eating. It had been a week since we'd escaped the well, and between the police interviews and my own procrastination about leaving, we were just now heading for Goldenrod City. To be honest, I wasn't looking forward to it. For one, I heard that Whitney is the most annoying gym leader in Johto, and that her Miltank is straight from hell. Also, we had to go through Ilex Forest to get there, and I was just _ecstatic_ at the thought of so many bugs and trees. And I have a horrible sense of direction too, so Luna would have to guide me.

But I was also a bit sad to leave Azalea Town itself. Bugsy was a great friend, even if he could be an annoying pest at times. Plus, I wasn't very keen to leave Slowpoke Well unguarded. I had no doubt that Team Rocket- who had destroyed any evidence of their existence in the Well- would move back in as soon as the media died down.

As for Falkner, well, Lance successfully 'saved' him, without even turning over more than a few hundred dollars that he'd disguised as a much larger stack of bills. That news report had sent me and Luna into hysterics, especially since Falkner was now sulking in his gym as police officers guarded him around the clock. He would have to wait a while before he had a chance to sneak out to help Giovanni. As of right now, my life was going surprisingly well. I had a few chances to relax and train Gigi and Romeo; both of them were doing well, too. Now I could focus on my journey. But a shadow covered my happy exterior. What was I working towards, now that Falkner had basically told me that he had no interest in our fights? Surely I would never be good enough to become Champion.

But Luna, Bugsy and I had pretty much silently agreed that I'd keep pretending to be 'Jack' in public. I'd managed to find the brown contacts in my pocket, but made the stupid mistake of putting them in without cleaning them. Let's just say I'll never do _that_ again. Anyways, I think that Falkner was lying. He had given up on capturing me so easily; maybe it was so he could have the pleasure of crushing my dreams himself. After all, he had said that he would let me back into the family only if I beat him. But since he hadn't revealed that I was still alive, that meant I no longer had a free pass to go back and be greeted with open arms. Falkner never admitted that he'd forced me to leave; therefore my parents wouldn't feel any pity towards me. So I guess I'll just have to train hard and go back to kick his snooty butt.

A thought crossed my mind, and I paused at the entrance to Ilex Forest, before turning around. "Hey, Bugsy!" I called. Luna stared at me quizzically as the boy walked towards us.

"What is it?" he asked hopefully. "Are you staying?"

I shook my head. "No, but I was wondering if you'd like to come with us."  
Bugsy frowned at me. "Jared, you know that leaders aren't supposed to leave their gyms for extended periods of time unless it's an emergency, right?"

"Yeah…but I heard that there's a bug catching contest coming up next week in Goldenrod, and that's where we're headed. I bet people would want to see the famous Bugsy there."

Bugsy stared blankly at me for a moment, and then smiled. "I see where this is going. Let me go get my bag." He took off back towards the gym. I'd eventually gotten my own backpack back- for some reason, Team Rocket left my and Luna's stuff in the well for the police to find. I guess they just didn't have any use for it.

"Wow, aren't you the mastermind?" Luna joked. "Devious!"

I smirked. "Whatever are you talking about, Luna? I'm simply mentioned that there's an event coming up at our destination."

"Pssh, liar. You just wanted Bugsy to travel with us." She teased. Darky, her Umbreon, was on her shoulder again. He studied me carefully, sending shivers down my spine. That Pokémon could be pretty scary.

"He did look pretty depressed when he thought we were leaving," I pointed out, averting my gaze from Darky.

"We can't travel with him forever, you know. He has a gym to run and we have a journey to complete." Luna was collecting the gym badges as well; however she was more of a Coordinator than a Trainer.

"Stop being a downer. I don't feel right, leaving him here alone when I basically scarred him for life by dragging him into that mess in Slowpoke Well. Falkner and Team Rocket haunt his dreams now, I swear it."

Luna scoffed. "Yeah, okay. That's why you want him to come with us. Admit it; you like having him around. It's not a bad thing to have friends, you know."

"No, I'm serious. I heard him screaming for help in his sleep the other night. Something about rockets and his Scyther." My face became stoic.

"Really?" She asked. I nodded. "Well…that's pretty bad. But I still think he's your friend and you refuse to admit it."

"I never said I didn't think of him as a friend. You're putting words in my mouth," I retorted. Luna rolled her eyes, and I saw Bugsy come running back with a bug catching net in one hand, and a Pokéball in the other. A backpack was slung over his shoulders.

"Alright, I'm ready to go!" He said eagerly. "It's been a while since I saw my friends in Ilex Forest!"

"Friends?" I asked. "Your friends live in the woods?"

Bugsy grinned at me suspiciously. "You'll see…" Oh boy. I did not like the sound of that.

"Bugsy…I don't like this…" I called warily, clinging to the Yanmega I was on top of. Gigi, however, was shrieking with delight. Apparently when Bugsy said 'friends' he meant the bug Pokémon that inhabited Ilex Forest. At first I'd been skeptical that they were good companions, so Bugsy had set out to prove me wrong. When I refused to let his Scyther anywhere near me with those giant claws, he'd offered to have one of the flying bug types give me a ride. I had agreed, which was a horrible decision on my part. Now I was high above the trees, soaring through the sky at an unreasonably fast pace.

"Come on, Jared! It's hardly moving. And you're hovering just over the treetops. Stop being such a baby." He said from the ground. I didn't believe a word he said.

"No way!" I exclaimed. "You're lying! This thing is way higher than the trees, and it going super fast." As I said this, the Yanmega suddenly darted forward to snag an Apricorn off a tree, and I shrieked in fear. I could hear Luna giggling below me.

"Ha ha, very funny!" I shouted down, arms wrapped around the Pokémon's midsection. "Just wait until it's your turn to be up here, Moon!"

"Moon?" She laughed. "Is that a nickname for me?"

"Technically, when you're dating, it's called a pet name." That was Bugsy, of course.

I frowned down at them. "We aren't dating! And yes, it's a nickname. Because she's crazy! You know, moony loony? Or whatever it is they say in kids show these days." Luna buried her laughter underneath a cough.

"You sound like an old man," She giggled. "The ancient slang and all!"

"Right. Just get me down from here." I complained, going dizzy as the Yanmega suddenly decided to do a barrel roll. My eyes dilated as I spun upside down, holding onto the Pokémon. "This thing is going to kill me!" I exclaimed, petrified, as Gigi grasped onto my hair painfully.

Bugsy shook his head, and I was pretty sure he whispered something to Luna, because she started snickering. "Yanmega, bring him down!" The purple haired boy called.

As soon as the giant dragonfly touched the ground, I leaped off of it's back and kissed the ground. "I'm alive!" I exclaimed gratefully, ignoring Bugsy and Luna's hysterical laughter. "Sweet, sweet ground…"

"You're something else." Luna giggled as I wiped the dirt from my face. "And I'm pretty sure you're acrophobic, too." Her Umbreon studied me from Luna's shoulder carefully, as if agreeing with her.

"What does that mean?" I inquired, standing up and shuddering at the thought of my terrifying encounter with the sky.

"It means you have a fear of heights."

"That is so not true!" I protested, crossing my arms. "I mean, I don't like being up high…but no one does! It's dangerous."

"Dude. You wouldn't walk on the ropes in my gym," Bugsy snorted. "And by the way, the platforms move. You could've just sat there and let them carry you across."

"Oh, hell no!" I exclaimed. "A moving piece of wood suspended by ropes? I'll pass, thanks!" Bugsy's gym really was like a jungle gym in the clouds. And I doubted that there would be a beanstalk to cushion my fall if I slipped off one of those oversized strings.

Luna grinned. "Yeah, and you didn't seem to enjoy the ladder in Slowpoke Well, either. You really do have acrophobia."

"It's nice to know you two are having such fun at my expense."

She grinned. "Aw, you know we're just teasing, Jared!"

Bugsy nodded. "Yeah. And if you're so tough, then why don't you climb that?" He pointed to the tallest tree in the clearing. My stomach churned as I thought of how I'd nearly broken my ankle back in Cherrygrove City. But…I was stronger now! Right? Eh, probably not. But still.

Gigi took one look at the determined expression on my face and hopped off my head. I pulled the backpack off my shoulders and tossed to the ground before walking bravely towards the tree.

"Is he serious?" I heard Bugsy whisper to Luna. "Because I wasn't!" Well, that would've been helpful to know before. But now I'd just have to go through with it.

I placed one hand on the lowest branch and hauled myself up a few feet. This tree had relatively smooth bark- rough enough to hold onto, but smooth enough so I wouldn't scrap my hands. That was good, I guess. I sat on the branch I'd hauled myself up with and smirked down at Bugsy and Luna. "See?"

"Wow, three feet up! You're such a badass." Luna said, clapping. "Call the officials, a record has been broken!"

I rolled my eyes. "I don't see you up here, _Moon_."

She smirked. "I'll tell you what. If you can reach the top of this tree, I'll kiss you again." She teased, petting Darky.

"Calm down, Satan." Bugsy snickered. Luna sent him a smug look.

I narrowed my eyes, and looked up at the top of the tree. "I'll hold you to that promise, Luna Sprague." I warned.

Luna shrugged. "Okay then. Now scurry on up!" I started climbing again, and vaguely heard Bugsy say something about motivation. I decided to ignore that comment and focused on finding another branch to grab.

Ten minutes later, I was seriously regretting my decision. "Can you send up the Yanmega?" I called down from my spot halfway up the tree. I clutched the trunk and a flimsy branch desperately. I was going to fall. I was going to fall, and crash to the ground painfully, and this time my ankle would break for sure- as well as a few other bones, probably.

"C'mon! You're almost there!" Bugsy shouted encouragingly. Except it wasn't very encouraging, considering that I could hear the wind whistling in my ears, and he was nothing more than a speck on the ground.

"But I want to come down!" I wailed, inching further up slowly. If they weren't going to help me, I might as well try to get to the top before I died.

"You'll be fine. Now get your butt in gear and climb that tree!" Luna ordered. I love how I'm the one in the tree, but I'm taking demands from the people on the ground.

I sighed, even though they couldn't hear me from where I was, and reached my hand up to climb another few feet_. Don't look down, Jared. Do not look down._ Of course, that just made me look down. I would have been fine if I hadn't thought about it. The world seemed to tilt as I realized how far up I'd gotten- and I was moving higher every second. I let out a squeak and gripped the branches harder to keep my shaking hands from slipping off. I gulped and forced down the bile that had risen in my throat, climbing up another branch.

After another agonizing ten minutes of climbing, I stuck one hand out and touched the top branch. "Hell yeah!" I screeched weakly. "In your face, gravity!" One thing about Karma: it sucks.

I toppled off the tree and fell through the air, screaming. I heard Luna and Bugsy's screams echo along with mine as my stomach dropped, giving me a sickened feeling. Panic overwhelmed me as I saw my life flash before my eyes. Well, I wish I could say that. Instead I saw a picture of Falkner sneering. Yeah, that's really what I wanted to see in the last seconds of my life.

I saw the ground spinning closer and closer, and then…a green blur crossed my vision, and then a flash of light, and I found myself at the top of the tree again, shouting joyfully. "Hell yeah! In your face, gravity!" As soon as the words left my mouth, I had a déjà vu moment, and blinked in confusion. What just happened?

Luna and Bugsy were no longer screaming; they were cheering, and looked as if nothing frightening had even happened. I glanced around blankly, and gasped as I noticed a small green Pokémon hovering in the air next to me. It looked kind of like a fairy, with small wings and a tuft of green hair in the shape of a flame.

"Bi! Bi! Celebi!" It squeaked, blinking happily at me with it's large blue eyes. My mouth fell open as I recognized Celebi, the legendary time traveling Pokémon, rumored to live in Ilex Forest. There was even a shrine dedicated to it somewhere around here. Had it…?

"Did- did you save me by bending time?" I asked, staring at Celebi. The Pokémon winked, and with one more cry, it disappeared in a flash of light. Seconds later, my head still reeling, Bugsy's Yanmega friend flew up to retrieve me.

Once I was safely on the ground again, I stumbled off the Yanmega and looked at Luna. "Forget kissing; you owe me a paid dinner in a five star restaurant!" I croaked, leaning against her.

"Sorry, but you aren't getting that. We're broke, remember?" She chuckled, giving me a peck on the cheek. My face flamed red and I gently pushed her away.

"Oooh!" Bugsy snickered. "Juicy! Wait until the neighborhood kids hear about this," He joked.

"Ew…girls are icky." I said picking my backpack up from the ground and trying to steer myself towards the trail. Dizziness proved that task impossible, and I tumbled onto the ground again.

Luna laughed. "I'm icky? How heart breaking. And here I thought we had something _special_!"

"Something special, like a doggie bag?" I groaned, closing my eyes and lying flat on the ground.

Luna stood over me. "Are you comparing me to a bag of vomit?" She questioned dangerously, half amused and half annoyed.

"No…but I think I need one."

"Why don't we stop for a break?" Bugsy suggested, laughing. He patted the Yanmega on the head and sent it on it's way.

I nodded tiredly in agreement as the world slowly stopped spinning. "Sounds good."

Too bad that at that moment, a Weedle decided to stab Luna in the arm with it's horn. "Agh! Arceus, that hurts!" She exclaimed, waving her arm injured arm to dull the pain. Bugsy let out a cry of protest as she batted the Weedle a good three feet away. "This is why I hate bugs," she hissed.

Bugsy frowned at her, but turned to me. "We may as well get going; she'll need that checked by a doctor as soon as possible, and Goldenrod is a good two days away. It shouldn't be poisoned, but it might get infected."

I groaned and sat up, pulling a strip of cloth from my bag. I'd saved a piece of cloth from my old shirt, in case I needed it for something. Well, now I knew that it was a smart decision. I tied the piece of fabric around Luna's cut. "There, that should stop the blood and germs for a while." I said, standing up and putting my backpack back on my shoulders.

"Thanks," She said, wincing, but then letting out a sigh of relief. "I think the blood's stopping."

Bugsy, who had already walked a few paces ahead of us, turned back. "Are you two coming?" He asked.

I nodded. "Yeah…we're coming." I grabbed Luna's hand and helped her up, before starting down the trail. As the three of us walked, I thought about what had happened in the tree. Why had Celebi saved me? Was it even intentional? I hoped that it was a good omen; I'd had enough bad ones for a lifetime. Then again, my luck seemed to be turning around, so it was probably a good thing. _Don't jinx yourself, Jared_. I thought with a sigh. _You're in a remote forest with only two companions. Anything can happen._ And unsurprisingly, anything- or more accurately, _everything_- did happen.


	17. Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Sixteen

"You have got to be kidding me," I groaned, staring at the place where the neatly worn trail faded into weeds and trees.

"This _is_ pretty annoying," Luna agreed. "It must be the fifth wrong turn we've taken. I thought you said you knew your way around here?" Both of us turned to Bugsy, who turned red with embarrassment.

"Um, well…Ilex Forest is a pretty big place." He coughed. "And, uh, I haven't gotten around to exploring every corner…"

Luna sighed. "So you're just as confused as we are?" She asked tiredly. Bugsy nodded assent, and I shook my head.

"In other words, we're completely lost. In the middle of the woods. At sunset." I frowned, thinking about our unfortunate predicament. "What if there are Ursaring around here or something? We're good as dead!"

"I don't think there are Ursaring in Ilex Forest…" Luna replied, seeming slightly unsure. "At least, I hope there aren't." After my Tarzan adventure, we'd traveled smoothly until lunchtime, when we stopped for a break to eat. And that's when the trouble started. We kept running into dead ends and going in circles; basic warning signs that should hint to you that you're getting lost. Unfortunately, we'd kind of ignored them until it was obvious we were screwed. I blame it on myself, actually. I obviously am not the best person to lead a group through the woods, and I had attempted to do so for an hour or more.

Bugsy turned away from the dead end. "Well, there's no point in moping around here, is there?" Without waiting for a response, he marched past us confidently and headed back down the way we came, rooting through his bag for something. I glanced at Luna before following him. If anyone in our group was qualified to wander the forest, it was Bugsy.

"Isn't there like, a kiosk where we can get a map around here?" I asked with a sigh. "My feet hurt, and I really want to use my energy on a worthwhile expedition, instead of this…survival reality show we've got going on."

"Oh, quit it. You're overreacting. Do you see anyone drinking urine?" Luna rolled her eyes, nudging me forward. "I didn't think so. Keep moving."

Bugsy looked back at us, a compass in his hand. "You have extremely low stamina, Jared. How'd you manage to outrun the police?"

"I didn't. I just hid in the woods. Actually, if anything, I've gained endurance since then. Way too much running for my liking."

"Well, you don't look very tired. I think you're just complaining out of boredom rather than actual exertion." He stated, facing forwards again. I glowered at the back of his head.

Luna sped up her pace to walk next to him, and looked over at the compass. "Do you know which direction we need to go to get out of here?" She questioned, inspecting the magnetic device.

"North," Bugsy responded, glancing down at the compass and taking an abrupt right. He stared directly in front of us, at the tree line.

"Not to undermine you, but why are you staring at the trees? Now is not the time to be admiring nature." I glanced up, making sure that Gigi was still clinging to my head. She'd fallen asleep, and I didn't want her to roll off onto the ground or something. I decided to put her in the Pokéball before she could crash to the floor and blame me.

Bugsy glanced down at the compass once more, then turned to us. "Here's the situation: Either we follow the trails and risk taking days to get out of here, or we cut through the trees and rely on the compass to help us through."

Luna seemed to be debating, and Bugsy was clearly leaning towards the shortcut. I, on the other hand, put in my two cents before they could make a rash decision. "I'm going to vote against traipsing through the uncharted forest. At least on the trails there's a chance of finding help; or having our bodies discovered when we're mauled by wild animals."

Bugsy rolled his eyes. "We aren't going to be attacked by Pokémon as long as we don't aggravate them." He said in a 'duh' tone.

"Exactly. And I'm going to agree with Bugsy on going through the woods, so that means we outvote you. Get ready to go on an adventure." Luna told me.

"Am I the only sane one here? There are all sorts of scary things out there! Giant bugs, huge monster-like Pokémon, dark side paths that were made by Arceus-knows-what, and-"

"Don't make yourself wet your pants, tough guy." Luna smirked. "Come on, you were chased by the authorities, bitten by a Zubat and then kidnapped! Shouldn't a fear of the woods seem irrational to you by now?" She waved her broken wrist, which had a cast on it now. "And between my wrist and that Weedle stab, I'm in far worse shape than you are if something attacks. I'll just be the appetizer while you two run for the hills."

"I wouldn't actually ditch you if something bad happened…unless it's a cliff. If you slip and dangle off a cliff, I'm not helping you up. Ask that one." I pointed to Bugsy.

She smirked. "What, afraid you'd fall off the edge too? Ac-ro-phobia. Learn it and research it, because you have it bad."

"I do not!" I paused. "If you're so good with that stuff, figure out what you call a person who's bad with directions, because I'm definitely that."

"You call those people 'lost'." Bugsy said sarcastically. "Come on; let's just get this over with." I sighed and followed him and Luna into the deeper section of forest.

As we walked through the closely crowed trees, I found myself glancing around at every little sound. I wasn't scared, exactly; just tense. It was like when I snuck out of the doctor's office, to meet Falkner outside and-

No. I was not going to think about that…that monster today.

While the three of us trekked through the unmarked path, Bugsy leading the way with his compass, the night slowly painted the sky. Before I knew it, we were stumbling across every root and twig as darkness shrouded the forest. I hissed as a rock tripped me, and I fell into the mud. Wrinkling my nose, I slowly got to my feet and brushed myself off. Looking around, I felt a pang go through my heart when I realized that I'd lost Luna and Bugsy. I shuddered at the thought of being separated in the dark, and hurried to catch up. "Hey, Luna! Where are you?" I called weakly. No answer.

"Guys, if you're joking around…this isn't funny." Still no response. _They walked off without noticing I was gone! _I thought, starting to panic. I gulped, and wondered if I should let Gigi out of her Pokéball. After debating it for a moment, I decided against that course of action- she probably wouldn't appreciate being woken from sleep- and instead began wandering through the dark forest.

A Noctowl hooted, and I started walking a little bit faster, daring to call out for help. "Luna! Where are you?" Finally, after about ten minutes of occasional shouting, I got an answer.

"I'm right here!" A voice shrieked in my ear. I let out a screech, and jumped at least a foot into the air, feeling my heart nearly pound out of my chest. The person started laughing, and it definitely wasn't Luna or Bugsy.

"Oh, Arceus, you should've seen the look on your face! Priceless! Too bad I only caught a glimpse of it…" The person was wheezing with laughter. "That was perfect."

Once my initial terror had faded, anger quickly replaced it. "Who the hell do think you are?" I whipped around to face a boy somewhere around my age, but it was hard to tell between the dark lightning and the unruly pink mess he had for hair.

His blue eyes pierced through the darkness, and he seemed to be evaluating me, which only angered me further. After a long moment, he responded, "Well, I think that I'm named Seth, but apparently I'm known as the 'hooligan' to everyone else."

Whatever the hell _that_ means. "Wonderful. So, _Seth_, why are skulking around Ilex Forest and scaring passerby?"

"Because I can." Was his blatant response. I groaned, already sensing that this kid was going to be a headache.

"Alright, well, the pink hair isn't exactly terrifying, so why the cotton candy color scheme?" I asked, stooping to pick up my bag, which I'd dropped.

Seth studied me again. "Let's just say I have a bit of, ah…trouble with the law." I snorted. _Doesn't _that_ sound familiar?_ I thought bitterly.

"I don't even want to know," I grumbled, starting in the direction I'd been going. I hoped it was north; that's where Bugsy and Luna were headed. Wasn't there something about moss growing the north side of trees?

"No, you probably don't." Seth replied, following behind me.

"Nope. Bye!" I'd shaken off my jumpiness since running into this wacko, and now I just had to find my entourage and get out of this accursed forest. I walked for a minute, before noticing that the kid was still following me. I stopped walking, and looked sideways at him. "…What are you doing?"

"Following you. Gonna do something about it?" His face twisted into an amused sneer, and I rolled my eyes.

"Well, I'm lost. So we'll see how that goes for you when you're stuck dying in the middle of the woods with me." I stated. His smile faltered slightly, but then he shrugged.

"Whatever. I'll survive longer than a mere child like you. Sad that your ugly rotted corpse is the last thing I'll see, though. However, _you_ get the honor of basking in my glory before you perish." I couldn't believe my ears. This guy may have topped Falkner's ego! Was such a thing possible?

"Mere child? How old are you, thirteen? I'm seventeen; I highly doubt you have right to call me a child." Of course, I was actually fifteen, but I had to keep up the 'Jack' act.

"I'm sixteen. It looks unbelievable with the hair, but trust me, this isn't my idea of fashion." I tried to outpace him, but he kept up with a swaggering stride. I growled in frustration, to which he responded, "What are you, a dog? Does the little doggy want a treat? Well, too bad! Bad doggy doesn't get a bone." And then he slapped me upside the head.

"Okay, loony-bin reject," I snarled. "Leave me the hell alone!"

"Did I make the puppy upset? Ooh, he looks angry! Maybe I should get a leash." Seth snickered, skipping alongside me.

I glared at him, stomping forward. "Look, I have to find my friends, so if you'd just get out of here…"

"Now, now, puppies shouldn't bark at their masters. Bad dog. I'll beat you with a newspaper for that!" Seth taunted.

By now, I was seething in rage, but I knew that fighting him would get me nowhere, considering that I would probably lose. Despite the spiky pink hair he sported, there was something about his demeaning attitude that made me think he wouldn't hesitate to go full-out on his opponents. "Too bad you don't have a newspaper."

"No, but I have a headband." He pulled the bright red sash off his forehead. Without that to hold his hair up, it flattened slightly on his head. Then he whipped my arm with the headband.

"Ow!" I hissed, rubbing the red mark on my arm. "Cut it out! You're being a complete jerk." That was an understatement.

"Boo hoo, poor puppy doesn't like me." He sneered, putting the headband back on.

"Is your sole purpose to aggravate people?"

"No," Seth snorted. I heard the sound of leaves crunching beneath shoes, and his eyes lit up. "Here comes my other reason for being alive!"

A boy with dyed white hair wandered towards us through the woods, stumbling over rocks similarly to how Luna, Bugsy and I had been earlier. He stopped short when he saw us, his gold eyes flickering from Seth to me.

"Hiya, Gold! I've been making a new friend!" Seth beamed, slinging an arm around my shoulder. I wrinkled my nose and shrugged him off. This kid has a weird idea of what friends are.

The boy, Gold, groaned. "You didn't bother him like you did me, did you?" He asked in exasperation. Turning me, he said, "Whatever Seth did, I apologize. He can be quite a handful sometimes."

"Now, don't jump to conclusions." Seth said cheerfully. "I was just having some fun with him."

"And how does 'fun' include comparing me to an animal?" I scowled. Turning to Gold, I said, "I'm Jack. Is this your friend? He's been annoying the crap out of me." Gold rolled his eyes.

"Honestly, Seth, can't you go a single day without making another enemy? We already have enough to deal with without this-" The newcomer started lecturing Seth, who stood there grinning, clearly amused. However, I was focused on something to the left of my vision.

It looked like a large bird house, on poles a few feet above the ground. The roof of it sloped downwards, nearly to the base of the structure. And something green was hovering near it…something that looked very familiar. I took a few steps away from the two boys and tried to get a closer look at it. With a gasp, I realized that it was Celebi's shrine- and Celebi was right next to it!

And unfortunately, someone else was, too. I recognized the Team Rocket garb instantly, and made up my mind. Tearing through the trees, I entered the clearing with the shrine and shouted. "Hey! What are you doing?" I crossed my fingers and prayed that it wasn't Falkner. When the person turned around, I sighed in relief. It was just a grunt.

Just a grunt that grabbed Celebi and took off running.

"Get back here!" Didn't these people ever give up? I charged after him, forgetting about Luna and Bugsy. Behind me, I heard Seth and his friend shouting questions.

I narrowed my eyes, slowly gaining on the person that held Celebi tightly. The green Pokémon squealed in his arms, and glowed brightly. Seconds later, I found myself back at the shrine. _She time traveled backwards, like when she saved me!_ I realized.

This time, when the man started running, I caught up quickly. I grabbed the back of his collar and he stumbled backwards, choking as the shirt dug into his neck. He fell backwards, and I jumped out of the way as he landed on his back. Celebi wriggled free from his arms and hid behind me. "Bi bi!"

The grunt struggled to his feet and grinned, pressing a button on a radio. A loud beeping sound rang through the forest, and winced, plugging my ears. "Now every Team Rocket member in a five mile radius will know exactly where we are, kid. Hand the Legendary over."

"Start being original. The whole harness-legendaries-powers-and-take-over-the-world thing is getting really old, and I'm pretty sure that's your plan." I hissed. I kind of owed it to Celebi to help, considering I'd be dead without her. And I really didn't want to see how insufferable Falkner would become if he dominated the world.

The man narrowed his eyes. "So you're going to be difficult, are you?" His hand rested on an object in his belt. Seconds later, he'd freed the object and was holding a gun to my head. "We're going to try this again. _Hand it over_."

My throat went dry and my eyes widened. Celebi shrieked and zoomed in front of the gun's range. The man growled; he couldn't shoot without killing the Legendary. I gulped, clutching the Time Travel Pokémon and backing up. The grunt advanced on me and I knew I'd have to do something quick or I'd be killed. So I did the only thing I could think of.

I punched him in the face and took off running.

Hurrying back the way I'd come, I saw the confused look on Seth and Gold's faces as I ran towards them. I stopped, panting, even though I could hear the grunt crashing through the trees behind me.

"There's a person…with a gun…Team Rocket. You two should get put of here!" I gasped, straightening up and quickly looking around for a good path to take. Any minute now the grunt would catch up and then I'd be in deep trouble.

Gold blanched. "D-did you say Team Rocket?" His voice was trembling.

"Yeah, it's not good." Seth and Gold exchanged a frightened glance. "They're not after you, trust me. You just don't want to get in their way." I said.

I half expected Seth to make a remark about me taking my own advice, but he responded with, "Well. Actually…they kind of are after us. At least, after Gold."

I shook my head tiredly and started to run, the two of them right behind me. Apparently more people stood up to Team Rocket than I thought.

"Exactly…why are they after you?" I called, swerving to avoid a tree that seemed to appear out of nowhere.

"Er, I'd rather not say." Was his rushed response. I glanced at him, feeling a bit suspicious, but shrugged it off. I had to focus on finding Luna and Bugsy, and getting out of this forest. Hopefully Celebi could hide somewhere- I mean, Legendaries are strong and smart, right? I really hoped so.

I heard something behind us- multiple pairs of feet breaking into a run. Checking behind me to make sure I wasn't hearing Gold or Seth's footsteps, I saw three grunts chasing after us. One of them had a black eye. I gulped, facing forward and trying to run faster.

A loud noise shot through the air, and Gold let out a strangled cry, tumbling forward. Seth and I stopped in our tracks, turning around to see him crouched on the ground with a hand clutching his side. Blood dripped through his fingers, and his face was twisted in agony. I felt dread settle to the bottom of my stomach when I noticed the bullet on the ground.

"I- I think it just grazed me." He gasped, trying to stand. I could hear the Rockets gaining on us. Gold fell over again, wincing. "I can't m-move. J-just go, I'll hold them off." His bloody hand reached for a Pokéball on his belt, and he let out a Crawdaunt.

"We can't just leave you here-" I began, but Gold cut me off.

"Wave can take them, don't worry. I'll catch up." The Pokémon shot a strong water gun attack in the direction of our pursuers.

I hesitantly started backing up. "I- I'll go get help. Stay right here."

Suddenly, Seth spoke up. "No! They're going to kill you, Gold, you can't stay here alone! I won't let you die." He dropped to the ground and took his headband off, pressing it against the wound. I could see now that it wasn't deep enough to cause internal damage, but if Gold kept running the exertion would surely make him bleed to death.

"Seth, listen to me for once and go. Wave's already held them back. If you want to help me, go with Jack, and get more people."

"But-" Seth started to argue, but went quiet. With a jolt, I realized that tears were glistening in his eyes. The kid that stalked me through woods bugging me was _crying?_ "You're my only friend. You can't die on me." He said quietly.

"I won't," Gold growled, calling to his Crawdaunt. "Wave! Bubblebeam!"

I glanced nervously at the Rocket grunts, who were clearly losing the battle. But would they stop at Pokémon battles? "Come on Seth, I have friends out here. We can send them for help from Goldenrod, and you can come back for Gold."

He nodded worriedly and, taking one last glance at Gold, started running towards an area where the trees began to thin out. We only got a few steps before we heard Gold cry out. Turning around, I saw that one of the grunts, a menacing looking girl, had gotten past the Crawdaunt unseen. Gold fumbled for another Pokéball and let out a Caterpie, which used string shot to pull the gun out her hand. As soon as Seth what was happening, he tried to run back, but a wolf-like Pokémon blocked the way. I took one look at it and decided that Gold would be better off than us, with his Pokémon, if we angered that thing. Grabbing Seth by the arm, I took off.

"_NO!_" He screamed, stumbling as he tried to shake his arm free. "Let me go! They're going to kill him, they want him gone! I don't want him to die-" He broke off in tears, and I felt a twinge of guilt as tears streamed down his face. Seth seemed fond of Gold, but I wasn't sure why, considering his jerky I-hate-everyone attitude. But then again, he'd said something about Gold being his only friend…

I wondered for a moment what I'd feel like if Luna was in Gold's situation, and quickly brandished that thought. It was too painful to think about. "We can't do anything for him right now. We have to find other people; there's no way we can face them on our own. I promise we'll help Gold, but we won't be any use dead." Seth took a shuddering breath and nodded silently, and I let go of his arm. We started running towards the edge of the woods in silence. But something made me think that he wasn't convinced that Gold would be alive when we returned.

***Gold is technically Gold from the manga, but...not really. It's a long story that started when I was roleplaying with a friend***


	18. Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Seventeen

Seth and I burst through the last few trees, breathing hard. Finally at the edge of Ilex Forest, it would be a quick walk to Goldenrod City, and we could find someone to help Gold. We stopped running, glancing around for the trail to the city. I spotted it to the right a ways- and Luna and Bugsy were there!

I gestured for Seth to follow, too exhausted to speak, and raced towards them. Once Luna spotted me, her eyes flashed with relief, confusion at the Celebi, and then anger. "You had us worried sick, Jar- Jack!" She said, seeing my companion, who was doubled over coughing. "Where the hell did you go?" She slapped me across the face, looking more worried than angry.

I flinched, but didn't bother complaining about it. "Luna, something's going on that's really bad."

"No duh! You took off in the middle of the woods at night! You could've _died,_ and now you have a Legendary Pokémon for whatever reason-"

"That's not what I mean. Look, I'm sorry that I scared you. I got lost and couldn't find you guys, and then I met this wacko-" I jerked my thumb towards Seth. "And then, well, Team Rocket showed up."

Bugsy stiffened, his eyes going wide. "Team Rocket?" He asked nervously. "I- I thought we lost them back at Azalea Town." I felt bad for the kid; he was already freaked out by the evil Team, and now he was about to learn that they tried to kill someone.

"Yeah…they, well, Celebi was there, and-"

"_They're going to kill Gold!_" Seth screeched.

"…What is he talking about?" Luna asked.

Seth's eyes flamed. "Team Rocket, airhead! They want to kill my best friend, and I won't let it happen! So either get your lazy ass up and be productive, or I'll go myself, even if it kills me!"

Bugsy stared in shock at Seth's rude remarks, but Luna was looking like she was going to strangle him. I covered Bugsy's eyes and backed away before blood could start flying.

"If speak to me like that again, you won't have to worry about Team Rocket." Luna growled dangerously. "Because I will murder you myself."

"He's understands, Luna." I said quickly, before Seth could make another comment. "But he was being serious when he said that Team Rocket hurt someone. I didn't realize the exact amount of their insanity, but apparently it extends even further than Falkner's, considering that they shot a kid."

Luna's anger faltered, and she sighed, pulling out Darky's Pokéball and releasing him. "Well, since I know you're going to throw yourself into danger and try to help this person, I might as well join you. Bugsy," she said, turning to him. "Can you go to Goldenrod, and get a doctor? I don't know how bad this injury is."

Bugsy nodded, seeming extremely grateful not to be dealing with Team Rocket again. "I'll get there as soon as I can!" He took off down the trail towards Goldenrod.

I sighed, looking at down at Celebi. "What are we going to do with the Celebi? It's obviously not safe for her to be in the forest right now."

"It's not safe for Gold to be in there either!" Seth raged.

I placed Celebi on the ground. "You're okay now, Celebi. Just stay here until I get back, and time travel if you need to escape someone. Okay?"

"Bi bi! Celebi!" She squeaked, nodding her head.

I turned back to Luna. "Do you really want to come? There was some serious crap going on back there, and I don't blame you if you don't want to get involved." Of course, I was going to back anyways because I was already involved, and besides that it was partially my fault that Gold had been shot.

She scowled at me. "Of course I am, you dolt! You're going to get killed without me there to keep you from doing stupid stuff, and I can take care of myself." Darky leapt onto her shoulder, and she faced Seth. "Alright, now that the child is gone, you better explain to me why Team Rocket shot someone. They usually don't do that; they like to stay under the radar- so what the hell is this?"

Seth's gaze flickered from me to Luna nervously. "Team Rocket…they don't want Gold to be alive."

"Clearly." Luna snapped. "But why?"

"I can't tell you that," he said quietly. "And even I could, you would just think I'm insane."

"We already do," I muttered. "Whatever, I don't even want to know why a crime organization has it out for you two."

Seth started walking back towards the direction we came from. "Good, because you'll never know." He was attempting to look defiant, but I could see the glimmer of fear in his eyes. He was worried about Gold, even if he tried to be strong.

I paused, looking around the dense trees. It was dark and hard to see, but I was pretty sure that I'd gotten us lost again. "Er…Seth, do you know which way to go next?"  
"No. I thought you knew where you were going!" He looked around rapidly, trying to find some indication of where his friend was. Even Luna seemed tenser than usual, and with good reason.

A scream split the night air, and without a word, Seth took off in the direction of the sound. There wasn't really much Luna and I could do except follow, so we chased after him before he got out of sight. By the time I caught up with him, he'd reached Gold. The boy still lay bleeding on the ground, clutching the headband against his side. His eyes were wide with fear as the girl from earlier walked towards him, grinning.

"Oh Gold, just give up already." She purred. "We're going to get you at some point, so you may as well make it easier for all of us."

"Stay away from me, Ashy!" he croaked, taking his hand from his blood-slick side. And that's when I saw something I hadn't noticed before, in the dark lighting. His blood was _clear_.

"Gold!" I exclaimed, drawing the attention of both him and the girl. "Y-your blood…it has no color!"

He blinked worriedly. "I know." My eyes widened and I stumbled backwards, nearly crashing into Luna, who had been lagging behind Seth and me.

"Wh-what the hell are you?!" I trembled, my gaze flashing between the Gold and the girl. I didn't know which one of them to be more afraid of.

"He's a failure, that's what." The girl sneered. "One of Team Rocket's creations, meant to be a killing machine. But the little puppet decided to choose his own path, and look where that got him." She walked towards me, smirking. "Afraid of us yet, Jared? Now that you know what we're capable of?"

I swallowed, glancing at Gold. Seth crouched next to him, speaking at a rapid pace and telling him to hold on. Luna looked on worriedly. This was getting way too weird for my liking. Gold was some sort of…experiment, and the creepy girl knew my name. Falkner was probably responsible for the latter, but that didn't make me feel much better. "No," I whispered. "I'll never be afraid of a group of cowards like Team Rocket. Forcing children to hurt people? You're sick."

At this, the girl threw back her head and laughed. "Gold may be young, but he's hardly a child- he isn't even _human!_ Just a tool. Oh, and Falkner asked me to send you a message," She said, lowering her voice. "He says that if he sees you with that girl again, she'll be hurt. I don't think it has anything to do with Team operations; just a personal grudge." She smirked.

My train of thought was interrupted by frantic screeching. "Gold! Gold, no!" I snapped my head towards Seth, who was shaking his friend. "Stay awake…don't go to sleep! We're going to get you to a doctor; you'll be alright!"

"Seth, stop. You're making it worse." Gold said weakly. "It hurts…I just want to rest."

"You can't!" Seth shrieked, smacking his head in attempts to keep him awake. "You'll die!" Gold's eyes started to close. "_NO!_ Wake up! Please, you can't do this to me, Gold!" He shook him again desperately, sobbing. "You're all I have…" I felt hopeless, watching Seth try to revive his friend. I wished that I could do something, but I wasn't a doctor. I couldn't heal a Zubat bite on my own; how was I supposed to keep a fatally wounded boy alive?

Luna was crying softly, looking away from Gold. With a shuddering breath, Seth let go of Gold and stood up. When he turned towards the Team Rocket girl and I, his tear filled eyes were flaming with fury. "You'll pay for this, Ashy!" He screamed, running at her. The girl, Ashy's eyes widened momentarily, but she quickly composed herself.

"Am I, now?" Let's see what you've got." She drew a dagger from her pocket and cut Seth across the arm, but he ripped it from her hands before she could do further damage. He shoved her to the ground, slashing at her with the dagger. This took Ashy by surprise, and she evaded the knife while Seth's eyes gleamed manically as he attempted carve her into pieces.

Ashy dodged most of his swings, only receiving a shallow cut across the cheek. She lunged forward, pushing him off, and jumped to her feet. "Striker!" She shouted, backing away from Seth. With a flash, a tall red and blue Pokémon appeared by her side. I felt my stomach sink as I recognized the Legendary Pokémon Deoxys. _Great. I'm going to die at this thing's hands because I was followed through the woods by an arrogant sixteen year old._ "Speed form!" Ashy commanded the Pokémon. The Deoxys transformed into a more agile- looking version of itself, and Ashy clung to it. "This isn't over," She hissed. "You're next, _Sethy!_" The Deoxys took off at what seemed like the speed of light with Ashy, and I was left standing with my mouth agape.

"What…just happened?" I managed to choke out.

"Giovanni's daughter just killed my only friend, that's what!" Seth shouted, tears running down his face.

"No," Luna said quietly, sitting on the ground next to Gold. "I feel a heartbeat…but I have no idea how you could fix him. Didn't that girl say he isn't human?"

Seth's face was a mixture of relief and horror. "N-no. He…he's a clone. Actually, more like a counterpart, of Giovanni's son Silver. Team Rocket wanted to use him as a weapon to track down Silver, but when he stopped listening to them they decided to kill him."

I shook my head wearily, sinking to the ground next to Luna. "They're insane. They are completely insane, Team Rocket. Someone needs to stop them before they end up conquering the world like they plan."

Seth heaved Gold's limp body up and staggered forward, trying to carry him. "There's no doubt about it, they are dangerous. Giovanni wants to use his own children as examples for the rest of the regions, for Arceus's sake. But I am glad for one thing…they created Gold."

"Dude, you need to rest." I told Gold, pushing him back into the waiting room chair. "You were shot less than three hours ago."

Luna, Seth and I had managed to haul Gold from the woods, and met up with Bugsy in Goldenrod. He'd already contacted the hospital, and we obviously couldn't send Gold into the emergency room. I don't think it'd be hard for the doctors to realize that he wasn't a human. But Bugsy hadn't given many details, and Seth needed his arm checked out anyways, so that solved the injured child problem. He'd been extremely reluctant to leave Gold, but by then the boy had already woken up. Apparently being a clone counts for something, because his body was self-healing at a rapid pace.

"So? I feel fine. Look, it already scarred over." He showed me the place where the bullet had hit his side, and it was true. The skin had already started to heal.

"I still don't understand this whole fake-humans thing," I sighed, shaking my head. It would take a very long time for me to absorb the information I'd acquired tonight.

Seth stiffened. "He isn't fake! He has a mind of his own, just like the rest of us," he insisted. Another thing I had learned tonight was to never mess with Gold unless I wanted Seth to beat me within an inch of my life.

"Real or not, this is definitely not something you'd find in my research." Bugsy murmured.

"Well, you study bugs anyways." Seth pointed out gently. He was being nice for once? That was strange.

"You all should be grateful that no one is in this waiting room besides us," Luna pointed out. "Or there would be quite a few eyebrows raised."

I nodded tiredly. "Yeah…and a bit more than that."

"If you say anything about autopsies, you're going to be the person that needs one." Seth warned. Now _that_ was more like it.


	19. Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Eighteen

"Look you little tramp," I muttered under my breath. "If you use rollout one more time-"

"Miltank, rollout!" Whitney cried happily, pointing a finger at Gigi. I swore quietly as her pink cow barreled into my Igglybuff, putting her down for the count.

Picking Gigi up, I turned and faced Whitney. "Thank you for the battle," I said through clenched teeth. When defeated in a gym battle, there were obviously some formalities required.

"No problem, Jack!" Whitney chirped, completely oblivious to my dislike of her and that damn cow. "I always enjoy training with friends."

Friends? Like hell! "As do I." I gave her a sickly sweet smile and quickly excused myself from the gym, feeling extremely frustrated. The girl was an impossibly hard Trainer to beat!

It had been two weeks since Gold was injured, and since then I'd been hanging around Goldenrod with Luna, enjoying the city and attempting to win the Plain Badge from Whitney. I'd already challenged her five times now, and Gigi was furious that she couldn't beat her Miltank. She woke me up every morning before dawn and wouldn't stop jumping on me until I had a training session with her and Romeo.

As for Celebi, I went back to the place where I'd left her the morning after we dragged Gold from the woods, but she wasn't there. I hadn't seen her since, which was fine by me. I'd had enough of Team Rocket's attention for a lifetime.

Seth and Gold were something else. They weren't exactly traveling with us, but every few days they'd show up at the room Luna and I had rented in the Pokémon Center and 'hang out' with us. In other words, Seth kicked my butt in poker and demanded compliments instead of money for winning, while Gold answered Bugsy's incessant questions about how clones differ from humans. The pair was definitely strange- it seemed like they'd been friends for years, though Gold admitted that he'd only know Seth for a few months. In fact, I made a pie chart as a joke that was called 'When Seth Says What He Means'. The key read that non-shaded areas stood for ' Demeaning random passerby' and the shaded was 'Defending Gold'. It was almost completely shaded. Seth didn't appreciate my sense of humor, and he burned it. On the other hand, Gold couldn't stop laughing.

I walked into the Pokémon Center and, putting Romeo's Pokéball on the counter, handed Gigi to Nurse Joy.

"Lost to Whitney again?" She questioned, seeming amused.

"Yes," I grumbled. She laughed and told me to come back in an hour for my Pokémon, so I trudged up to the room. It was actually more like a small apartment, with multiple bedrooms, a kitchenette and a living area. Something told me that a lot of people had trouble beating Whitney, because this room was meant for extended stays.

Luna was sitting a chair, reading the book her brother had sent her. She looked up at me and chuckled, seeing the look on my face. "Lost to Whitney?"

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah. I want to strangle that Miltank." She laughed again and returned to the book. I walked over to the kitchenette and got a bottle of water from the mini fridge. With a sigh, I walked into my bedroom, deciding to take a nap. Training with Gigi and battling Whitney had exhausted _me_ far more than it had Gigi. I set the water down on the nightstand and pulled back the covers-

"Holy shit!" I exclaimed, jumping backwards, a hand clutching my chest. I could feel my pulse racing. There was a lump of gray, black and pink under the comforter. It was Seth. "What in the name of Arceus are you doing in my bed?!"

He rolled over and yawned. "I was sleeping."

"But _why?_" I wondered if this was what Luna felt like when we first met.

"I was tired, obviously." He sat up, stretching, and blinked at the lack of an Igglybuff on my head. "Whitney kicked your ass another time?"

I scowled, becoming cross. Did people expect me to lose or something? "I would have used a lighter term, but yes."

Seth snickered. "Nice. Kudos to the pink haired tween that keeps managing to beat the Great Jared Wilson." I'd decided to come clean to Seth and Gold, considering that I'd found out about their secret. Gold seemed to think I was lying at first, but Seth was overjoyed, and seemed to think he could be partners in crime with the kid that had stolen a Pokémon. His literal words were, 'Awesome! Someone who will actually _encourage_ me to do illegal crap!'

"Like you can talk. In case you've forgotten, you look like a five year old girl got a hold of her mother's makeup and a Barbie doll." His pink hair amused me to no end, considering his attitude. Like me, Seth and Gold were using hair dye and contacts to look like different people. Seth and Gold both had black hair, but the difference was their eyes. Seth had green and Gold had, well, gold. Apparently he'd been wearing pink contacts, but decided it was too strange looking. Not that the gold was much better, but I decided not to tell him that since Seth was in the room. Now that Team Rocket had found them, I'd suggested they quit with the disguises, but then I found out the 'trouble with the law' alibi hadn't exactly been an alibi. Seth tried explaining to me excitedly about a Magmar and a house, but I walked out before he could finish _that_ story.

"You're just jealous that I look like a god even with ugly hair." Seth said.

"You have an ego problem."

"I don't see a problem with it."

"That's the point."

Rolling my eyes, I unscrewed the cap to the water bottle and started to take a sip. Huh, the cap seemed a bit loose for a new bottle…

I started choking as a disgusting taste washed over my tongue. Spewing the liquid from my mouth, I put the cap back on the bottle. "Ugh! How'd the store manage to make the water this gross?"

Seth was giggling uncontrollably. "Th-that isn't water," he gasped, holding his sides. "It-it's Gold's-" He broke off, laughing hysterically. My eyes widened as the realization hit me.

"Oh, Arceus! That is nasty! You- you put his _blood_ in a bottle?" I gagged, trying to force any last drops from my throat. I grabbed a pillow from the bed and wiped my tongue on it, praying it wasn't poisonous.

He was still trying to compose himself. "I'd hoped I'd be around when the person who got that bottle drank it." Seth saw my face and snickered again. "Relax, it's perfectly harmless. He said so himself."

"So you put it in the fridge for someone to _drink_?"

"He left a lot of blood while he was healing. It'd be a shame to waste it." Gold's body had healed itself pretty quickly, but if he moved around too much, the skin would break and he'd start bleeding again.

"I should've known something was up when you offered to pour that stuff in the woods." I groaned, heading back to the living area. There was no way I was getting a nap now.

Bugsy had returned from training with Gold, and he looked at me. "Whitney beat you?"

"_Freaking yes!_" I exclaimed. "Do I really look that hopeless to you people?"

Bugsy raised an eyebrow, but Luna chuckled and closed her book. "You're like the hundredth person to ask him. Nurse Joy always expects it when he walks in." She explained. Bugsy nodding in understanding, and started to grin. I scowled and walked to the fridge, getting a new drink. I sniffed it very carefully before taking a tiny sip. Thankfully, it was plain water.

"For future reference, if Seth offers you a drink, refuse." I said when Luna gave me a 'you-already-got-a-drink-don't-waste-it' look.

"I wouldn't anyways; he's too devious. I wouldn't trust him handling my food. But why, what'd he do?"

"You don't want to know," I shuddered, taking a drink of the water to wash away the last taste of Gold's blood. Luna chuckled and stood up, walking over to me.

"Well, I'm pretty thirsty too, and it's cold out. I'm going to make hot chocolate." She opened the can of complimentary cocoa powder, but stopped before spooning it into a mug. She sniffed it carefully, like I had with the water. "Wait a minute…this is dirt!"  
I heard Seth's voice from the bedroom. "Damn it!"

"This is horrible." I said wearily, gazing around the crowd. "This is utterly, completely, totally horrible."

Luna rolled her eyes. "You aren't even the one being cornered by the crowd of fans."

"Thank goodness I'm not." I replied, feeling sick- and it wasn't because Seth had messed with my food. There was literally a mob of people converging on Bugsy, who was standing by the fountain in the middle of Goldenrod City's National Park. We were at the bug catching tournament, a day after my fifth crushing defeat against Whitney, and it was a bit scary. Though he wasn't participating, Bugsy simply being there made the bug Pokémon fanatics go practically insane. About a dozen people were shouting for autographs.

"This makes me want to reevaluate my whole life," I said weakly. "I always thought I'd want to be a gym leader like Falkner, but now…so many people…I can't take it!" I tried to flee the park, but Luna grabbed my arm and dragged me back to her side.

"Calm yourself. If Seth can deal with this, so can you."

"_Seth_ looks like he's having a marvelous time." Even Gold and the Tasmanian devil in question had come to see Bugsy off, because he'd be leaving for his gym in the morning. But despite not giving a crap about 99% of the people he met, Seth wasn't afraid of them. While I had extreme social paranoia, he was just rude. In fact, right now he was carefully placing a Joltik- probably 'borrowed' from one of the bug catcher's hordes- on top of a little girl's head. Seth slunk away, and a few moments later you could hear screams of 'Get it off me! Get it off!'

Luna frowned, watching the scene, but didn't say anything more. A bell rang, signaling the start of the contest, and most of the Trainers disappeared into the grass and woods around the National Park to look for the Pokémon. Once the majority of the crowd had dispersed, Bugsy made his way over to us.

"How do stand this kind of attention?" I asked, gazing around at the few people that were left. There were only about a dozen Trainers nearby now, but it was still more than I was comfortable with.

"You get used to it," he chuckled. A little boy ran up to us, holding a camera tightly. I stiffened, dreading what I knew would come next.

"Oh, wow! You're Bugsy!" He exclaimed, eyes wide. "I love bug Pokémon, too! I want to be just like you when I'm old enough to be a trainer! Can I have a picture of you and your friends?"

"Sure," Bugsy said, smiling. Wait, what? I didn't agree to this! I never signed a Waiver!

But I found that I didn't have to force a smile for the picture, and even let Gigi out of her Pokéball. Sure, being repeatedly crushed by Whitney had been depressing, but I was finally happy- surrounded by friends and people who actually cared about me. Sure, some of them could be insufferable (Seth), but that only made it more interesting. And you know what? At that moment, I thought that life couldn't be much better.


	20. Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Nineteen

I stood, frozen, on a sidewalk in Goldenrod City. I was planning to re-challenge Whitney later today, but for now Luna and I were wandering around aimlessly. Bugsy had left earlier in the day, and it was really quiet without him hovering over our shoulders constantly. So, we decided to do last-minute sightseeing, because I was confident I'd win the gym battle this time, and we could be on our way. Luna didn't seem to think so highly of Gigi's and my skills, though.

"C'mon, Jack, keep moving. Are you going inside or not?" Luna said, prodding me. The road was pretty crowded, so she was using the fake name- but at this rate, it really wouldn't be a secret much longer.

"How about 'or not'?" I said, rolling my eyes at the sign in front of me. _Name Rater_ it read. _Get your Pokémon Nicknames Rated!_

"Why not?" She asked, exasperated. "We don't have anything better to do- you heard Whitney; she's not going to be at her gym for another half hour."

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean I want to listen to some old quack tell me that the name I chose is cursed." I snorted, studying the makeshift tent in front of me.

"Please?" Luna begged, pointing at the sign. "He'll only be in town a few days!"

I took one look at her Lillipup eyes, then heaved a sigh. "Fine…but only because I know you'll come out mumbling about charms and Witchcraft if I don't supervise."

"Sure I would," she replied, trying to hide an excited smile. "Now let's go!" And she dragged me inside the large tent.

Inside, it was dim and smelled of scented candles. I coughed, the aroma making my eyes water, and waited for my eyes to adjust. And old man sat on the floor in front of a low table covered with stereotypical-looking magic props. "Welcome. I am the Name Rater. Would like me to critique your Pokémon's name?"

"Yes!" Luna squeaked, letting out Darky and sitting down at the table. "This is Darky, my Umbreon. Do you think the name is good for him?" She asked anxiously. It took all my willpower not to roll my eyes.

The old man studied her Pokémon. "Hmm…yes, that is a decent nickname. Well done." Luna's eyes lit up and she clapped happily, hugging Darky.

"Jack, you should do this too!" She said gleefully, moving over to make room for me by the table.

"Uh…I don't know." I said, eyeing the table warily. I'd never been the sort to believe in magic mumbo-jumbo, and I really didn't want to start now. Otherwise I'd start seeing omens everywhere, like those people that think they see Arceus in their cereal bowls.

Luna frowned at me. "Stop being such a killjoy. It's almost Halloween! Don't you want to do creepy, superstitious things like normal people?"

"Not really." I shuddered. The last time I'd truly celebrated Halloween was when I was seven, and it wasn't fun at all. I went trick-or-treating around Violet City, which was nice enough, but then Falkner dared me to go into Sprout Tower alone at night. I didn't find out until it was too late that he'd tricked me, and there was a haunted house set up in there. Let's just say it was not meant for kids that are young enough to still believe in the Boogeyman. That pretty much ruined Halloween for me.

She fixed me with a glare until I threw up my hands and said, "Fine! It's not like this baloney is true, anyways." With a huff, I sat down next to her and released Gigi from her Pokéball. Seeming very curious about the strange tent, she looked around in awe and bounced up and down lightly. "Her name is Gigi. So does her name tell of doom in the near future?" I asked in a bored tone.

The man squinted at my Igglybuff. "Gigi, you say? Well, I don't know about curses, but it is not a particularly attractive name for such a cute Pokémon."

"Okay, I'm not dealing with this." I picked up Gigi and left the tent. Stepping out into the cold sunshine, I sighed. I had better things to think about than an old geezer that didn't like my Pokémon's name. For instance, Whitney. How was I supposed to beat her? It was normal type vs. normal type. And I was pretty sure Whitney's Pokémon had more experience than mine.

Luna stalked out of the tent. "Did you really have to storm out of there like that? You probably offended the poor old man!"

"Offended him? Ha! He literally lives to criticize people, Luna. I'm pretty sure he gets that a lot."

"Whatever. At least he said Darky's name was nice." She rolled her eyes, the Pokémon in question on her shoulder. She checked her watch. "You should probably head to the gym now for your battle. I'm going to go stock up on Potions and Pokéballs at the department store…see you in a few hours?"

"With a Plain Badge." I confirmed. Luna gave me an amused but disbelieving look, and waved goodbye, heading toward the store.

Gigi climbed out of my arms and onto my head as I started towards the Goldenrod City gym. This time would I would win! Seventh battle, and seven is a lucky number- wait, no, this is my sixth challenge. Isn't six the devil's number? …Crap.

I pushed open the doors to the gym and walked in, quickly clearing the obstacles that Whitney created. It's kind of sad that I've been here enough times to memorize a life size maze. Once I got to Whitney, she jumped up happily. "Oh, Jack, you've come to challenge me again! You're getting stronger. Maybe this time you'll beat me!"

"I know I will," I said confidently, Gigi leaping off my head. She was clearly ready to inflict pain on that Miltank.

Whitney grinned and pulled out her Cleffairy's Pokéball. "Well, then let's get this battle started!"

That was over before it started. Gigi hadn't been able to expose Miltank's weaknesses, but she'd figured out Cleffairy's. Whitney sighed and returned her fainted Pokémon. "I need to train Cleffairy more…alright, so you can beat her pretty easily. But I know you'll never be able to get past Miltank!"

The Miltank towered over Gigi, but despite having lost to it so many times, she wasn't easily intimidated. She knew the strategy I used, too, which worked well at the beginning of the battle. Not so much later on, but I was still figuring that out. As soon a Whitney called 'rollout!', Gigi hopped into the air and used pound on the Miltank, effectively stopping it from rolling.

"Good job, Gigi." I murmured. "Okay, sing!" The problem with this was that the Miltank was startled awake as soon as Gigi used an attack- and she couldn't use sing more than once or twice in a battle. It hurt her voice too much.

Once the Miltank was fast asleep, I quickly scanned my brain for ideas. Then I gasped, not believing I hadn't thought of this before. "Gigi, return!" I swapped Gigi for Romeo, and ordered him to use sketch. I watched in fascination as he drew the transparent Miltank, and it used a powerful rollout attack. Romeo hopped to my side, swelling with pride as Miltank blinked it's eyes open, struggling to it's feet.

"Okay, Romeo, I want you to let the Miltank attack you, if it's not too powerful." I said to him. I'd read about the move sketch, and I heard that it works better if the attack hits your Pokémon beforehand. But if I didn't want to risk him getting badly hurt for the sake of a stupid Badge, either. Romeo nodded, and turned to face the Pokémon.

"Hmm…let's see." Whitney said in a pondering tone. "How about…Zen head butt!" The Miltank obeyed quickly, charging at Romeo. Quite frankly, it was pretty terrifying to see an animal equipped with horns that could gouge your eyes out charging in your general direction.

Romeo leapt out of the way just enough so that he'd be grazed, but not badly injured. Knowing what my next command would be, he used sketch again, turning Whitney's weapon against her.

The Miltank stumbled backwards as the image rammed into her, and she shook her head as it disappeared. Whitney was studying me through narrowed eyes. "You've improved," she commented. "This is the farthest you've gotten yet. Perhaps you'll bear me after all."

I turned red. "What's that supposed to mean? You thought I was going to give up trying to win the Plain Badge?" I demanded. Whitney gave me a sly smile, and I growled in annoyance. "Romeo, return. Gigi can finish this." I swapped my two Pokémon, and saw Whitney's Miltank paw the ground. I glanced between my Igglybuff and the rival Pokémon. Both of them looked ready to kill- but also ready to fall over

Whitney and I ordered the attacks at the same time. "Pound!" "Stomp!" Our Pokémon raced forward, bracing for attack. I flinched; this could not go over well. And let's face it- an Igglybuff is a lot smaller than a Miltank.

I saw two blurs of pink going at each other. A faint noise rung in my ears, a beeping sound, but I ignored it and focused on the battle. The two Pokémon were coming closer and closer, and then they collided. I wasn't sure who was who for a moment, and then a Miltank fell to the ground, fainted. I couldn't believe. Gigi had beaten Whitney's Miltank. She must have put a _lot_ of anger into that punch.

Whitney stared in shock for a moment. "Miltank…lost?" She asked quietly. I blinked, still in disbelief, and didn't notice her lip quivering. Suddenly, Whitney started to cry. "Waaah! It's not fair! I trained so hard!"

No, no, no. Not crying. I hate crying. Make it stop! "Whitney, it's just a battle-" I began.

"B-but Miltank tried her best! She deserved to win…" The girl wailed, still in tears. I forced myself not to roll my eyes. I finally beat her on my sixth try, and _she's_ the one that ends up crying?

"Yeah, but…sometimes you just need to train harder. It took a long time for Gigi and Romeo to be able to beat Miltank." I said, remembering when Bugsy had burst into tears. Luna comforted him…although, this girl was probably twelve or thirteen. And she wasn't being held hostage. So why the hell should I be nice to her? Oh, yeah, because I need the Plain Badge.

"R-really?" Whitney sniffed, looking up. "Your Pokémon suck worse than mine?"

She's a charming girl, really. "Uh…sure." I said, picking up my exhausted Igglybuff.

Whitney brightened. "That makes me feel better! You had to work hard to beat me…ha! In your face!" She did a little dance. They should think twice before admitting younger kids to the Pokémon League. "Here's your Plain Badge!" She said, slapping it into my hand. "Toodles!" She returned her Miltank and skipped into the back of the gym, probably to heal her Pokémon.

Rolling my eyes, I walked outside and headed to the Pokémon Center. Now that I had the Plain Badge, I could wave it Seth's face and move on to Morty's gym. I paused for a moment in the street, earning myself an angry shout from a bicyclist that swerved out of my way. My journey was nearly half over. Granted, I'd gotten the Zephyr Badge without a battle- but I would earn it for real when I battled Falkner. I could go home, and cut the fake identity crap, and see Sammy again…

But a part of me wondered if I would want to go back. I finally had friends who cared about me, and loyal Pokémon that would fight to defend me if need be. But I blinked, shoving the thought from my head. Of course I wanted to go home. Why else was I battling the gyms? To become the Champion? Yeah, right. Like _that_ would ever happen.

I walked into the Pokémon Center and dropped Gigi and Romeo off at the desk, proudly showing Nurse Joy the Badge. By the time I got to the room, I was feeling elated and happy again. But that lasted a very, very short time.

As soon as I entered, I saw Gold pacing up and down the room, staring at his Pokégear and murmuring. He looked up as I stepped in, eyes wide. "Jared! Thank Arceus, I've been trying to get a hold of you for ten minutes, we thought they'd gotten you too, even Seth seemed worried-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" I said, holding up a hand. "Slow down! What's going on? Why did you try to call me?" I vaguely remembered hearing a ringing sound toward the end of the battle with Whitney.

Gold shook his head in disbelief. "You haven't heard?"

I gave him an impatient look. "Obviously not. What is it that you're going on about?"

"Jared, Luna's been hurt."


End file.
